The city of Minneapolis has been roiled for some time by riots and active interference with federal law enforcement. The violence has been incited by Democratic politicians, led by Tim Walz and Jacob Frey. Their strategy is to create enough chaos to distract voters from their own failures in office, including Minnesota’s multiple fraud scandals, and instead turn the election campaign that is already in progress into a referendum on President Trump.
This seemed to be working when Walz and company were able to turn Renee Good, who ran her vehicle into an ICE agent, into a kind of heroine. But it is not so easy to sanitize Venezuelan gang bangers:
The three men arrested for ambushing an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday have all been identified as illegal immigrants from Venezuela who were let into the country under the Biden administration, officials said Thursday, calling the attack an “attempted murder” of federal law enforcement officers.
The Department of Homeland Security said the suspects — Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Alfredo Alejandro Ajorna and Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledzema — were all in the country illegally, and are now in ICE custody.
“What we saw last night in Minneapolis was an attempted murder of federal law enforcement. Our officer was ambushed and attacked by three individuals who beat him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms. Fearing for his life, the officer fired a defensive shot,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
Noem’s statement included this warning:
“Mayor [Jacob] Frey and Governor [Tim] Walz have to get their city under control. They are encouraging impeding and assault against our law enforcement which is a federal crime, a felony. This is putting the people of Minnesota in harm’s way.”
I don’t think Walz and Frey are worried about being handcuffed by federal agents, but they seem to think that their strategy of encouraging lawlessness has run its course. Thus, Walz tweeted this:
State investigators have been on the scene in North Minneapolis.
I know you’re angry. I’m angry. What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets.
But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace.
Don’t give him what he wants.
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 15, 2026
It is a classic case of projection. It is Walz, not Trump, who wanted violence in the streets and got it. And put aside the delusion: Minnesota is indeed an island, but not in a positive way. The point here is that Walz is calling off the dogs. Having called out the Minnesota National Guard and threatened to use it in an insurrection against federal authority, Walz is now backing off.
Likewise with Jacob Frey, who just a few days ago was screaming at ICE to “get the f*** out of here” in front of an angry crowd:
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey shifted his rhetoric overnight as he called for peace across the city — just a week after unleashing a foul-mouthed tirade in which he demanded that ICE agents “get the f–k out.”
The Democratic mayor softened his tone slightly while urging anti-ICE agitators to remain peaceful or “go home” in the wake of a violence-plagued night that saw an illegal Venezuelan migrant shot in the leg after allegedly ambushing a federal agent with a shovel.
“I’m calling for peace,” Frey told a news conference late Wednesday shortly after the shots were fired. “Everybody has a role in achieving that peace — and we’re going to try and do everything we can to keep it.”
I don’t think Walz and Frey are afraid of criminal prosecution, but I do believe they think that anti-ICE violence no longer serves their political interests. And President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which plainly applies to the lawless situation now prevailing in Minneapolis. Would Trump actually deploy the 82nd Airborne to Minneapolis? I don’t know, but Walz and Frey probably don’t want to find out.
