Ellison on Church Protest: I’m Frustrated by ICE ‘Escalating Into Our State’

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) responded to a question on whether he is frustrated by people barging into a church in St. Paul by saying that “Over 3,000 ICE agents escalating into our state, a threatened 1,500 active-duty military soldiers. That’s what frustrates me.”

Host Erin Burnett asked, “I’m wondering if you have any frustration that this happened in a church. And, look, I know the protesters say that one of the pastors was an ICE official, and DHS has not confirmed or denied that, right? So, you would think if it weren’t true, they would have denied it. But we don’t know, they haven’t said, but, obviously, the optics of going into a place of worship are not necessarily great. Does it frustrate you that it happened this way?”

Ellison answered, “Look, here’s what frustrates me: Over 3,000 ICE agents escalating into our state, a threatened 1,500 active-duty military soldiers. That’s what frustrates me. This situation is 100% because of Operation Metro Surge. This escalation, unjustified, irrational, [un]constitutional is why this is happening. I urge all people to obey the law, to try to do everything they can to not be provoked. But the reality, he’s trying to provoke us. And I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. I can only tell you that the president is causing all of this. If he de-escalated and actually got into a conversation with local officials here, we actually talked about how to enforce all laws, that would change things dramatically. But that’s not what we’re getting. We’re getting threats, we’re getting surges, we’re getting massive violations of people’s human rights. And, as a result of that, some people are expressing themselves in ways that are out of the normal. And so, I’ll leave it right there.”

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