Minneapolis mayor stands his ground with border czar, refusing to budge on the one thing they wanted

Mayor Frey reinforced his position during a conversation with Homan on Tuesday, making sure the border czar understood that Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws, as reported by The Hill. Frey shared on X that he laid out the “serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis and surrounding communities.” He also pointed out the significant strain the federal operation has placed on local police officers.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey just put his foot down, making it crystal clear to border czar Tom Homan that the city won’t trade its sanctuary policies for anything, even the departure of federal immigration authorities. That’s a serious power move, and it shows exactly where Frey’s priorities lie for his city. Despite the tension, Frey noted that city leaders will continue to stay in conversation with Homan and his team moving forward.

This high-stakes standoff follows a tragic incident where two U.S. citizens were killed by immigration authorities in Minneapolis. President Trump administration officials, including Homan and Attorney General Pam Bondi, have been heavily urging local officials across the country to comply with requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to help detain migrants without legal status in the area.

Honestly, that kind of pressure on local law enforcement is awful for public safety, especially when the city is trying to stay focused on protecting its own neighbors and streets

While Mayor Frey is standing firm on sanctuary status, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz met with the border czar for a separate discussion earlier in the day, which the governor characterized as “productive.” Walz told reporters that the state continues to comply with obligations mandated by federal law, including turning over inmates who are determined to be residing in the country illegally.

However, Walz wasn’t shy about calling out how the federal agents were spinning the numbers. He referenced ICE touting the number of detainments in the state, arguing that they were “taking credit for people that we’ve had in jail for a long time.” The state always hands them over, according to Walz, so I can totally understand his frustration with the federal government trying to grab credit for local work.

The Minnesota governor, who bypassed a reelection bid amid a statewide fraud scandal, decided to give a piece of advice to Attorney General Bondi, urging her to focus on something else entirely rather than local immigration operations.

Walz told reporters that Bondi should focus on releasing the much-anticipated Jeffrey Epstein files. “I would just give a pro tip to the Attorney General, there’s two million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on,” he said during the press conference. “Go ahead and work on those.” That’s a serious burn, and it definitely redirects the spotlight from local compliance issues to a much bigger national transparency issue.