Minneapolis Mayor Frey: ICE Is an ‘Occupying Force’

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was an “occupying force” in his city.

Partial transcript as follows:

FREY: We are doing the work to keep people safe in our city, and specifically, it is our local police officers. It is the state of Minnesota and our governor. We are doing everything possible to keep the peace, notwithstanding this occupying force that has quite literally invaded our city. I mean, we’ve got 600 cops in the city of Minneapolis, and we’re talking about 3,000 plus ICE agents and border control that have come in. They’re not making our city safer. In fact, our city has been safe. Crime is down in virtually every category and virtually every neighborhood of the city.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You said occupying force, don’t, don’t you think that’s a- that’s a bit much?

FREY: I mean, look, you can go through whatever rhetorical flourish you want, but when you have 3000 ICE agents and border control come to the city, when you’ve got this supposed threat of 1500 military coming to the city, yeah, that’s very much what it feels like. When you outnumber local police officers five and six to one, that is the vibe. And so the bottom line is, if the goal were safety, this is not how you get there. If the goal is safety, I can give you the very antidote to some of the violence that we’re seeing is have them leave.

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