Speaker 1 (00:01):
… this surge has made us less safe. Thousands of poorly-trained, aggressive and armed agents of the state, of the federal government have rolled into our communities, overwhelmed our local police departments. And law enforcement agencies should be focused on our public safety, but instead, many are dealing with the aftermath of DHS agents' chaos and violence. I want to thank our law enforcement officers for doing a tremendous job under very difficult circumstances. Not the people, but the federal government.
(00:35)
Minneapolis Police have had to respond to more than 20 ICE-related incidents, like witnesses seeking people being pulled into unmarked vehicles by men in masks or ICE abandoning vehicles on the street with people detained inside. This is an unlawful commandeering of police resources. In just two days, responding to the chaos ICE has caused has cost the city $2 billion in law enforcement and overtime expenses. Two days.
(01:07)
And I wish I could stop there, but I can't because these poorly-trained, aggressive and armed agents of the federal state have terrorized Minnesota with widespread unlawful conduct. They're making unconstitutional arrests and using excessive force. DHS agents have barged into restaurants asking to access secure areas. And when asked to present a warrant, which is required by law, they respond, "We don't need one." DHS agents have arrested peaceful bystanders. They have fired chemical irritants at people obeying lawful orders while exercising their First Amendment rights. They have even done so at some of our most sensitive places, like Roosevelt High School here in Minneapolis.
(01:59)
They have detained law- abiding citizens, leaving them handcuffed for hours just because of the color of their skin, or what they're wearing, or they speak English with an accent. And on January 7th, 2026, a DHS agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, leaving her children without a mother and her six-year-old son without either parent. This has to stop. So, let's be clear. It never should have started. These agents have no good reason to be here. Minnesota's non-citizen immigrant population is just 1.5%, which is half the national average. Our state's percentage is lower than Utah, Texas and Florida's, but none of those states have thousands of federal agents swarming their streets or harming their people. The administration says that they're focused on finding criminals. Worst of the worst, they say. But many of the people the DHS is arresting in Minnesota have no criminal history. That fits a pattern. In 2025, 93% of the people arrested by ICE had no violent criminal history, 65% had no criminal convictions at all. And randomly stopping people in the street because their skin color isn't the one that they expect or want isn't doing a thing to help public safety.
(03:36)
I've heard the administration talk about fraud. No, not the 43 fraud convictions the president has or the $43 million fraudsters the president has pardoned, but instead saying that ICE is here to look for fraud somehow. We work with federal government all the time and if the federal government wants to help us with forensic accountants, we're open to that conversation. But these ICE agents who are engaged in the behavior that they're engaged in are not helping public safety at all. Immigration enforcement agents aren't trained to investigate fraud and randomly stopping people in the street because you don't like their accent isn't going to stop fraud.
(04:22)
So, enforcing federal immigration law and fighting fraud are just pretext for this surge. The real reason, it's no secret, Donald Trump and his administration have been targeting people, cities, and states that don't agree with them politically. He singled out Minnesota countless times. He's called us corrupt and crooked. He's attacked our funding to the tune of billions of dollars, which we are challenging. And we fought back, of course. He's attacked programs that Minnesotans rely on and tried to shut them down and pay taxes for. And he's attacked Minnesotans with despicable, racist, xenophobic language.
(05:02)
The truth is, Donald Trump doesn't seem to like our state very much, but what's that about? He doesn't like our best in the nation, safe and secure elections, and sometimes he doesn't like who we choose in them. Just last week, Trump claimed that he won Minnesota three times, when in fact, he's never won Minnesota. He doesn't like how we take care of each other or how we make sure our kids have enough to eat. He doesn't like the strength that immigrant communities bring to our state. And he doesn't seem to like that we protect our neighbors no matter where they were born.
(05:41)
In short, the Trump's administration's decision to target Minnesota and Twin Cities is motivated by a desire to retaliate against Trump's perceived political opponents, who are the people of the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities, rather than any good-faith concerns about immigration enforcement, public safety or law enforcement.
(06:03)
In conclusion, I didn't have the pleasure and the benefit of knowing Renee Nicole Good, but her friends and family knew her as someone who was kind, someone who loved her family deeply, and someone willing to stand up for her neighbors. That sounds like the Minnesota that I know. The administration wants to paint false political narratives about us, but we know who we are and we know our rights. The Constitution gives Minnesota the sovereign authority to protect health and wellbeing of every single person who lives on our borders. The Constitution gives us a right to vote for who we want. Pray however we want and be whoever we want without fear of being racially profiled, assaulted or killed in our own communities.
(06:54)
We're going to defend those rights because as much as they'd like to believe it, DHS is not above the law, and the people of Minnesota are certainly not beneath it. Let me now bring forward my mayor, the mayor where I go home at night and is doing a wonderful job protecting our city. Mayor Jacob Frey.
Mayor Frye (07:24):
Thank you, Attorney General Ellison, for your leadership and your incredible team's work around this issue. Thank you to Mayor Her of St. Paul for your partnership. These are not normal times, and so the response that we are asking for from the judicial system and from the courts requires that we file suit at this particular moment. What we are seeing right now is not normal immigration enforcement. We are not asking ICE not to do ICE things.
Mayor Frye (08:00):
We are asking this federal government to stop the unconstitutional conduct that is invading our streets each and every day. You've seen the videos. At times, there are as many as 50 agents arresting one person. The scale is wildly disproportionate and has nothing to do with keeping people safe. In Minneapolis, we've done work extensively with the federal government under multiple administrations to keep people in our city safe. We have worked with the DEA, the ATF, the FBI, the attorney general's office, as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office, to successfully drive down crime in our city. We've seen the results of that work, but let's be clear, the stated reason of this federal government for bringing in this full invasion of ICE and border control is not safety. If it were safety, there would be other mechanisms to achieve safety. By the way, crime is down in virtually every category, in virtually every neighborhood of this city.
(09:12)
If this were about fraud, then you'd see an invasion perhaps of accountants, but that's not what you see. What you see is people being indiscriminately taken off our streets. Discrimination only takes place to the extent that determination has made that somebody is Somali or is Latino, or at least they look that way, and then there is virtually no discrimination thereafter. Here's the thing. You can't indiscriminately take people off our streets, American citizens off our streets. You cannot drag pregnant women through the snow. You're not allowed to take teenagers out of their car and detain them when they are in fact American citizens. That is against the law in every state. That is against our United States Constitution. And we're feeling the impact here in Minneapolis. Schools have closed. People are afraid to go to work, shop, or seek medical care. 911 calls are up. Police resources are indeed stretched thin.
(10:16)
We have approximately 600 officers in the city of Minneapolis. Mayor Her has approximately 600 officers in the city of St. Paul. The number of ICE agents and border control are now in the thousands. They are in the thousands. If the goal was immigration enforcement, if the goal were simply to look for people that are undocumented, Minneapolis and St. Paul would not be the place where you would go. There are countless more people that are undocumented in Florida and Texas and Utah. Why are they in these much smaller cities in the middle of the Midwest? The answer is very clear. It is politics. Florida and Texas and Utah are Republican states. The reason that Minnesota and Minneapolis are being targeted is because you've got a Democratic governor, a Democratic attorney general, and you've got Democratic mayors. We are doing everything possible to keep our cities safe through this unprecedented time.
(11:24)
And at the same time, we have police officers that are tired. We've seen damage substantially because we're now having to pay a ton of overtime. Millions of dollars of emergency overtime for law enforcement. Emergency operations have been activated across our city and state agencies, pulling focus on daily core services that we, by the way, are tasked with providing. Local police officers are being diverted from the very work that we need to be doing in small businesses are losing significant revenue with some worried that they may not survive this at all. People are scared to take their kids into school or daycare to go into work. They're going to have difficulty paying rent. There is no doubt in my mind the kind of action that the federal government is taking is not just mean-spirited. It's unconstitutional and every one of us need to be standing up.
(12:27)
Let me give you another example. Just last week, a group of our city's public works employees were stopped by ICE agents. Three of the four employees were not white. The ICE agents asked to see the IDs of the three non-white employees and didn't even bother to ask the white employee for the identification. Minneapolis is being targeted because we stand up for our neighbors and we welcome immigrants because we believe in the law. And as I said, frankly, because we are in a blue city, in a blue state. Donald Trump should know. As long as federal agents are in our city acting unconstitutionally against our neighbors, we will continue to push back with everything we got. And let me just take a moment to say how grateful I am to the residents of our city and of our state. We are not victims in the city of Minneapolis.
(13:24)
We've got heroes that are standing up for each other, that are standing by the neighbors that they love. And one thing that I can tell you for certain is that we aren't backing down. We don't retreat in Minneapolis. We don't back down in Minnesota. We stand up against bullies and right now what we are asking for is an intervention from the court to push back on this unconstitutional conduct pure and simple. I'll now turn it off to Mayor Her.
Mayor Her (14:01):
Good afternoon, everyone. Today, I'm proud to stand with Mayor Frye and Attorney General Ellison to fight for our residents. This federal occupation of our cities needs to end immediately. Federal law enforcement is racially profiling our residents, creating mass chaos, and undermining the relationship between local government and our communities. We will not stand idly by and watch this happen. With this collective action, we are taking a firm stance to tell federal law enforcement that this cannot happen in our country. It cannot happen in our state, and it cannot happen in St. Paul. Federal law enforcement is going far beyond what they can and should be doing to enforce immigration laws. They are endangering our community safety, straining our resources, and sowing distrust.
(14:52)
While we know we can't control federal agents, we will pull every lever we have to fight back in every way that we can. They've come into St. Paul and needlessly invaded our neighborhoods and homes. They're targeting us based on what we look and sound like. Our residents are scared, and as local officials, we have a responsibility to act. I want to thank Attorney General Ellison and Mayor Frye for taking a united stands for the people of Minnesota. And to our immigrant and refugee communities, let me be clear. You are a vital part of our city. You are loved and you are wanted and you are important to the fabric of our state.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That's right.
Mayor Her (15:33):
As a refugee who came to this country, this is the state that welcomed my grandparents here in the late '70s, allowed our family to break the cycle of poverty in one generation, educated us, allowed us to build wealth, and within one generation have new family members that are educated and a part of this economy and this workforce that we need to continue to make sure that our state stays that, and that can't happen if ICE continues to run amok
Mayor Her (16:00):
… buck of our city and our state. And so we cannot let this federal administration divide us. We need to come together now more than ever. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Thank you. Great job. So now, we have a few minutes for questions. I want to acknowledge the vital presence of President Elliot Payne of our Minneapolis City Council, here on behalf of all of the council members, I think representing the council. Thank you for your presence here, sir. And I also want to say thank you to all of our staff members who've worked so hard to prepare us for this moment. They all are very, very critical to the work that we do every day and we're grateful to them as well, and they may help us answering some of your questions. We have about 15 minutes for questions, and so I'll select the first person who I see. Tom?
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Attorney General Ellison, there's been some success in getting the National Guard out of some states with lawsuits like this, but that was over a question of what the role of the National Guard is. It's pretty clear what ICE's role is. Is that going to make this legal challenge more difficult?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I don't think so because ICE, as I think the Mayor Fry said very well, ICE has statutory responsibility to do a certain job. Where our argument is is they are exceeding that dramatically in unconstitutional, unlawful ways, violating our First and Tenth Amendment rights, our equal sovereignty principle and provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act. They have to obey the law themselves as they carry forth their statutory duties. We argue they're not doing that. They have to operate within the law and the constitution. Yes, sir?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
AG Ellison and AC Thompson from PBS Frontline.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Thank you. Is this litigation aimed at restraining the use of crowd control weapons, less lethal weapons? Our whole crew got pepper sprayed today by federal agents. Are you aiming to do anything about that?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Well, one thing I'd like to ask you to do is to make a complaint and make sure people know what happened to you and your crew. Part of what our case is about is First Amendment protection. We believe that the federal government is persecuting the state of Minnesota because of our political views, and that goes … And look, the First Amendment, the press is protected by the First Amendment, and it's vitally important in this moment when freedom of the press and every First Amendment right is under a threat by the federal government, so I'm going to ask you to let us know what happened. But yeah, we're trying to restore lawful conduct and make sure that the federal government operates within the boundaries of the law, which they're required to do. Yes, sir?
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Attorney General, this is really something that's obviously really ramped up in the last week.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
What kind of timeline can we expect on this suit? What are you looking at? What's your office expecting here?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Well, we filed a lawsuit already. It's on file right now.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
As far as results go.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, it's hard to predict exactly what the court schedule will be, but we are anticipating a quick action. I don't know what any of my team members want to … Brian, you want to respond to that?
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Brian Carter, special counsel for the attorney general. I don't know if we filed quite yet, but we do have a motion for a temporary restraining order that's going to be filed today. We're going to ask that the court hear that motion tomorrow morning. There's another similar motion in a separate but related lawsuit that's scheduled for that time. We're going to try and piggyback on that and we're going to be asking for immediate relief.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Brian Carter, everybody. Way in the back.
Speaker 8 (19:53):
St. Paul, have any specifics on overtime for police officers in the way that Minneapolis had some stats?
Mayor Her (20:02):
We've had to open our command center in order to monitor the city. We've had to have all of our officers in uniform so that we do have information as well, and we'll be sharing more of that information in the days to come as it relates to this lawsuit.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Are those overtime costs likely to reach into the millions if this continues?
Mayor Frye (20:20):
The question is are those overtime costs for Minneapolis police and St. Paul police likely to reach into the millions? The answer is absolutely. We have normal core functions that we are tasked with doing on a daily basis. We are required to respond to 911 calls. We are trying to prevent murders from happening and carjackings from taking place, and by the way, the work of our police has been driving down those numbers substantially. Our police officers have performed admirably because they're not just doing their day-to-day job. They're also responding to countless 911 calls that people are being kidnapped, that agents in unmarked uniforms, in unmarked cars are simply taking people off the streets that are American citizens. They're required to do the work to keep the peace. Our police officers are doing the work to keep the peace and to keep people safe.
(21:15)
With 600 officers, we can't do all of those things all of the time, not to mention our officers are human beings, and therefore ,there is a point where they get tired. And when we've canceled all days off, when our chief is working tirelessly, and he deserves a ton of credit here too, where we've got officers that are working incredibly long hours and long shifts, the truth is that when you get to a certain point, you start making mistakes, not because you're a bad cop, but because you're a human being. And so we need relief, we're asking the court for it, but the damage that we are suffering right now in Minneapolis is not limited to overtime costs. It's schools shutting down, it's businesses closing. It's people being afraid to go out and get groceries, and therefore, are going hungry. It's their inability to get money so that they're unable to pay rent. There is a snowball effect that is happening right here, and it's not just because we're in Minnesota and there's a lot of snow.
(22:15)
The snowball effect is because what ICE is doing is intentional. This is intentionally putting us in a very difficult position that is not pro business and is not pro safety. The only thing that I can see it being is pro politics.
Speaker 7 (22:34):
There has been a little bit of concern about some of the tactics that have been used on the streets. We talked to a couple protesters about some very heavy-handed use of force toward them. Are you guys concerned about what you're hearing from the public in terms of not only talking about the pepperball spray or how people are being tackled and handled or what you saw at the high school? Can you elaborate on what you guys are hearing about?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Well, I'll let the mayors jump in here, but I can tell you that this whole lawsuit is partially driven, not exclusively, but partially driven by exactly what you just said. And again, look, ICE was operating here before this surge. We didn't file a lawsuit before.
Mayor Frye (23:16):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
This is because of this surge, and quite honestly, it is because of the accumulation of so many stories that are just so far out of the range of normal. Some of y'all saw the videotape at Target, some of y'all saw the videotape at Roosevelt High School, and I can tell you how many people who've called me and said, "I am afraid to go to work." And I'm not talking about people who are non-citizens. I'm saying citizens, because when a woman like Renee Good gets shot
Speaker 1 (24:00):
… down, then everybody, citizens, non-citizens, are terrified. And I'll leave it to the mayors to fill in there. Come on.
Mayor Her (24:09):
I will say that the question is if we're hearing about it, we are absolutely … I mean, I think that we are really lucky here in our state and specifically St. Paul, Minneapolis, is that we have a strong network of community organizers who've been working together. We hear almost every instance that happens, whether it's text to us personally and we're looking into it or whether it's coming into our neighborhood groups, we are hearing it and we are seeing it and we are looking into… Every time I get one, I inquire into it to see. But I think that what's more important in all of this is that it's not just the tactics that are being used. It's the attack on the American people who are citizens. I wasn't born here. I'm carrying my ID with me. I'm carrying my passport card and my ID with me all the time because I don't know when I'm going to be detained, when I'm going to be approached.
(24:50)
The fact is that it doesn't have to … The tactics doesn't even at this point really matter, right? It's the fact that we are being attacked as American citizens right now and we are hearing of it and we are inquiring into it every single time we get something sent to us.
Speaker 10 (25:04):
Last question.
Speaker 9 (25:05):
A lot of lawsuits against the federal government that have been ongoing, led by your office. We also do have the backdrop of fraud investigations happening as well. Can you just speak about how resources are being doled out in the Attorney General's office and who's being dedicated to fighting the federal government?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Our Medicaid fraud unit is hard at work. We've prosecuted and convicted over 300 people since I've been attorney general for Medicaid fraud and other people in our office who do agency representation, they're working hard. But the people who work on what I call federal accountability, they're busy too because the federal government has tried to deprive our state of money that we're entitled to by statute that has been appropriated to our state. And if we don't fight for it, we won't get it. And that will deprive the people of the State of Minnesota of resources and money that they deserve. And I'm talking about things like SNAP benefits, housing benefits, childcare benefits, all kinds of benefits, National Institute of Health Benefits, FEMA benefits that they've tried to unconstitutionally deprive us from. So do we have resource pressure? Yeah, my folks are working really hard, harder than they should have to, but we can walk and chew gum and we're fighting fraud every single day.
(26:29)
And let me just say this about fraud. Anybody who steals from a program designed to help poor people is no friend of mine, and I'm all good to hold them accountable. And the federal government, they're doing all this stuff that we don't need them to do. I wish they'd do some more things we do need them to do. Now, I'm not talking about local federal officials. They're doing their job. We work with the US Attorney's Office and the FBI to fight fraud, and I'm very glad with their partnership. What I'm referring to is the substance of this lawsuit right now. This is not what we need. We don't need this, but we could use … We need all the help we can to get to help make sure that every dollar that the generous people of Minnesota devote to helping others gets to those others.
Speaker 11 (27:17):
AG, just one more, if I may. If the courts do rule in your favor here, are you confident that DHS and the federal government would abide by the judge's orders and what would be the next step if they do not?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yes, I am. No, I believe that they will abide by the orders because I believe that anybody who stands below an American flag, lifts up their hand and swears a oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States will abide by the lawful orders of a court. And if they don't, I want everybody in this room to know that they are the runs who are expressing contempt for the rule of law.
(27:45)
Now, having said that, you asked the what if question. Well, there are ample ways to make a miscreant violator of a court order obey that court order. One of them is a contempt of court, but let's not jump there. Let's expect good conduct and obedience to law, and that's what we expect. That's what we expect we're going to get. And I think there's a possibility that Mayor Frey wanted to talk a little bit more about what your citizens are going through, or maybe you covered that already.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
I can add on to that.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, but I just think… Yeah, what, do you want to go for it?
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Just in general?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yeah, just like what people are dealing with, man. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Yeah. I mean, we don't use the word invasion lightly. What we are seeing is thousands, plural, thousands of federal agents coming into our city, and they're having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life, and it's a negative one. And whether that's kids that are trying to get to school or businesses that are trying to open, that's police officers that are responding to 911 calls. It's just about being able to conduct daily life right here in our city. And look, this is not about fraud. When you have a fraudster, you investigate, you charge, you prosecute, you hold the person accountable, and then they get put in jail as an individual. They get put in jail as an individual. You do not hold an entire community or an entire city accountable for the actions of the fraudsters. That's not a novel concept. That's just the way this works in American society, and we should be abiding by that.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Good. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And let me say thank you, Mayor Her. Let me say thank you to the men and women of the independent press of America. The reality is that the work you do is critically important to get the word out to the people and we are grateful for it. And with that, we're going to conclude, but I'm sure any of us will be willing to talk to y'all offline. Bye-bye.