Transcript: Minneapolis Mayor to Trump: You Will Never Break Us

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the February 18 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.

Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.

Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, are claiming that they’re winding down their occupation of Minneapolis and shifting to a more targeted set of operations. It remains to be seen whether that will actually happen or not, but what’s already clear is that the occupation has done immense and lasting damage to that city. Today we’re talking to the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, about what ICE is still doing on the ground right now, what the road back is going to look like, and what really happened between local officials and the Trump administration that led to this promise to wind things down. Mayor Frey, thanks so much for coming on with us today.

Mayor Jacob Frey: Thanks so much for having me.

Sargent: So, Mayor, a new report in Politico finds that top ICE officials knew as early as March 2025 that use-of-force incidents were soaring among ICE agents. Data at the time indicated that in 2025, such incidents had quadrupled over a comparable period in 2024.

Mayor, this is well in advance of the decision to send enormous amounts of federal agents into Minneapolis. And there are no signs ICE took real steps to rein in officers. And, of course, your city paid the price. Your reaction to that?

Frey: None of this is at all surprising. Directing agents to use tactics that might ultimately result in a use of force, in fact, will likely result in a use of force. I don’t think it’s entirely wild to see those use-of-force numbers go dramatically up.

You’ve got to understand that a lot of these directives are there from the top. It was a decision at some point to bring thousands—tens of thousands—of agents in without a whole lot of training. It was a decision to not ensure that basic constitutional conduct was met. It was a decision to send thousands of ICE agents and Border Patrol into a city like Minneapolis without a clear objective and without tactics that could safely have you arrive at that objective. And so, no, none of this is surprising at all.

Sargent: Well, Mayor, the other day, Trump border czar Tom Homan announced that he’s ending the so-called “surge” in Minneapolis. And he said that more than 1,000 agents have left the area and hundreds more will depart in upcoming days. He said a “small security force” will remain.

Mayor, are you in the city of Minneapolis okay with what Homan is saying to you both publicly and privately and what he’s doing right now? Is he giving you what you hoped for?

Frey: Of course we support an end to Operation Metro Surge. So to the extent that the numbers of federal agents are decreasing substantially in Minneapolis, we support that reduction. To the extent the conduct is changing, we support that shift in conduct—because let’s be real, we have these roving gangs of agents walking down the street indiscriminately picking people up on the basis of Are you Somali? or Are you Latino? and then largely indiscriminate pickups thereafter.

So the conduct needed to change; the numbers need to dramatically change. We need ICE out of our city. And so, again, I will believe it when I see it as far as the actual end to Operation Metro Surge, but it is my understanding that we are going in the right direction.

Sargent: Right. But just to pick up on what you said there, what exactly is happening right now as we speak? Trump officials have been talking a good game about engaging in more targeted enforcement—seemingly meaning going after, or not going after, non-criminals anymore and only targeting criminals. You mentioned that there is a desire to see less profiling. Right now, who is ICE going after? Is ICE still arresting undocumented immigrants with no criminal records in Minneapolis?

Frey: We can’t provide confirmation on the level of documentation for anybody at this point who has been arrested or detained. That’s just not information that we get on a regular basis. That being said, yeah, over the last 24 hours—at least in Minneapolis, the city where I’m the mayor—the number of ICE actions has gone down.

Sargent: And do you see a difference in the operations themselves? You mentioned that you want to see them not doing those types of sweeps and not doing this type of profiling. Are you seeing a decline in those things, or a disappearance in them, or are those things still happening?

Frey: You know, it’s somewhat subjective, in that obviously we don’t have access to every single action that has taken place. What I can tell you is that over the last, at least 24 hours, the number of actions in Minneapolis has gone down.

Sargent: Well, I’m hearing from some people on the ground there that ICE is still harassing schools. Even today, there’ve been some reports—both online and privately to me—that we’re seeing ICE kind of do these weird “roving maneuvers” at schools. Is that right? And what’s the plan to deal with ICE’s activities going forward?

Frey: So, I have heard over the last 24, 48 hours of a number of actions that took place in other cities, surrounding suburbs, and exurbs. And so, again, I can’t speak with intelligence to them. That being said, in Minneapolis, yeah, it has gone down.

Does that mean it’s been eliminated entirely? No. Again, we will believe it when we see it as far as the removal of these thousands of ICE agents and the end to Operation Metro Surge. As of recent...it appears to be going in the right direction based on the information and the data points that I’ve got.

Sargent: I’ve heard that federal agents have at times almost stalked people for the “crime” of filming them and monitoring them. There’s been this talk about ICE keeping a database on protesters and all that. I know that this is anecdotal and subjective, but what’s the reality that you guys have been experiencing? Are you getting reports of agents kind of stalking people for simply monitoring them?

Frey: We have certainly gotten reports that people were being stalked, monitored, harassed, hunted down—you know, whatever other superlatives that you want to attach to those words. But the most important word here is unconstitutional.

The most important facet here is that the things that were happening, you can’t do—not just in Minneapolis, not based exclusively on any sort of, like, ethical obligation—but you can’t do that because it’s against the Constitution of the United States of America. You can’t simply detain somebody because they look like they’re Somali, or they look like they’re Latino or Southeast Asian. You can’t grab somebody only to find out that they’re a United States citizen and then return them hours or days later. That’s not how it works in the United States.

You can’t weaponize the Department of Justice to go after local people to coerce them to enact a national agenda based on a change of localized policies. I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that we’re seeing here. And you should be pissed off about this—not because you’re a Democrat, but because you’re an American. You should be pissed about this if you care about the endurance of our republic and these foundational underpinnings of our democracy. Like, this is what we’re about. This is what it means to be an American.

And so, yeah, there were these roaming gangs of ICE agents and Border Patrol that were operating throughout Minneapolis. I mean, you’ve seen this on video. You can believe your own two eyes. Again, are we seeing a decline? It appears to be so. But as far as an end to Operation Metro Surge, we’ll believe it when we see it.

Sargent: And so what’s the plan? Presuming that if it does continue, are you guys putting together some kind of contingency plan to deal with that?

Frey: Yeah, we’ve got contingency plans on contingency plans at this point. We’ve been operating in an emergency-management mode for a couple of months now. We’ve made sure to have what’s called our National Incident Management System in place. We’ve got what’s called our MAC Group, which is the overarching command structure.

And so, yeah, we’ve got a ton of plans if they stay. We’ve got plans if they leave. We need to revitalize our city and get everything back and moving again. And that’s a big part that just needs to happen. We need to get the lights in these businesses turned on and the doors flung open. People need to feel comfortable and safe going back to work and being a customer in the businesses that they love.

And I’ll also mention that we’ve got litigation that is taking place, preemptively and responsively. And if for some reason they decide to stay, we’ve got other options that are before us.

Sargent: Right. And here’s another element of this that I think is confusing to a lot of Democrats and liberals nationally: Tom Homan’s claim that he’s pulling out of Minneapolis now that he’s “secured a deal” to access local jails. He said that on CBS. That’s been, sort of, the line of the administration—that they’ve gotten success there. What’s the real story? What has been agreed to, exactly?

Frey: So I speak for Minneapolis. In Minneapolis: nothing. We haven’t changed any policy. We had a separation ordinance when this whole operation began. We have a separation ordinance now, which says that our cops—our public officials—do not enforce federal immigration law, and we don’t coordinate with agencies as they are doing that.

So that was our position. That’s always been our position. And it hasn’t changed a lick. The jails are under a different jurisdiction. That being said, I don’t think the sheriff changed her policy either.

Sargent: Yeah. That’s what I was going to ask you about. You must be in touch with the people who control the policies on the jails as well. Is it your understanding that there’s been any change in policy?

Frey: My understanding is that there has not been.

Sargent: Yeah. So a person might wonder whether Tom Homan is kind of “declaring victory and going home,” if that makes sense.

Frey: Yeah. And again, I don’t want to speak for the sheriff; there may be some nuance to this. But any of the things that we agreed to in Minneapolis are things that we would have done with or without ICE. I mean, I’ve said this a thousand times over: If this is about safety, truly, we’re on board.

You want to catch murderers and rapists? You want to arrest, prosecute, and charge people that have made our city less safe? Yeah, by all means. But why does the focus have to be on where you’re from? Why can’t it be on the crime that you committed?

If the focus is on a crime, then we do work with federal partners. We have extensively worked with federal partners—the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office—to successfully drive down crime, for instance, on the North Side to record-low shootings. We are, right now, seeing record-low shootings on the North Side of the city, which has traditionally had too many shootings.

And so, yeah, by all means, we do partner when it makes sense. But no, certainly, we do not want to be engaging in the kind of conduct that we have seen over these last couple of months from this federal administration.

Sargent: Right. I mean, I think that for most people who are observing this situation, it seems obvious that what ICE is doing—or has been doing, anyway—has nothing to do with targeting criminals. It’s a completely indiscriminate and very broad net that they’re casting. They’re going after people based on appearances, ethnicity, and suspicion.

And so one big question, I guess—and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this—is whether ICE will now actually go after criminals and not after non-criminals. What’s your anticipation there? How important is that to you?

Frey: Well, I’m never going to predict what ICE is going to do next, because I do not know. Obviously, ICE has done “ICE stuff” for decades in Minneapolis and throughout the country. What we’ve seen over the last couple of months is not ICE doing normal ICE stuff.

What we’ve seen over the last couple of months is something wildly different that has terrorized a city, that has led to the detention of United States citizens, and that has ripped apart families. And we’re talking about dragging a pregnant woman through the street and detaining a five-year-old kid who has done nothing—not to mention the extraordinary economic impact: $203 million worth of economic impact in January alone.

We’ve had businesses that have closed; small and local businesses have lost more than $80 million in revenue, and hotels have lost quite a bit of revenue. Minneapolis had been on this phenomenal comeback, and obviously we’re going to get right back to it. But for those who say that this ICE invasion was somehow necessary for either the safety or the economic strength of our city, it’s had the exact opposite effect.

Sargent: My understanding is the stuff you just said is based on fresh data assessing the impact of the ICE invasion of Minneapolis. Is that right?

Frey: Yes.

Sargent: This is new information. What’s the full range of the info? Is there any other info you can share?

Frey: Let’s see: I’ve got 203 million in economic impact broadly. Small businesses: $80 million. Hotel cancellations: it’s more than $5 million—I mean, I imagine it’s definitely up in the tens of millions.

More than 75,000 additional people are facing some form of food insecurity. Thousands of schoolchildren are in need of support services. The city alone has spent about $6 million, mostly in overtime for police. So the impact here is staggering. The impact is very real; it’s tangible; it’s monetary. And countless people throughout our city are feeling that impact.

And at the same time, you’ve got a national audience here. I’m sure there’s a lot of people that have been inspired by the incredible Minneapolis community that has stood up for their neighbors in beautiful fashion. I’m sure there are people that have been inspired by the tens of thousands of those that are peacefully protesting—the people that are bringing groceries to a family that is otherwise terrified to go outside, or standing watch over a daycare.

If you are looking to help those incredible people out—if you’re looking to stand with Minneapolis—come here. We want to have you. Go shop at some of these awesome Latino-owned businesses. It’s like the easiest ask I could possibly make: Go buy some tamales and eat them. Go buy a beautiful dress; go buy some insurance. I mean, all from some of these Latino-, Somali-, and Southeast Asian-owned businesses...they need your help and they need your support.

Stay in a hotel room; spend all your money. Well, have a great time. I mean, I am not from Minneapolis. I grew up on the East Coast, but I ran the Twin Cities Marathon, and I fell in love with this beautiful “City in a Park,” which it is. I moved out here; I’ve got my whole life here. If you want to help, come check out Minneapolis. We’ll roll out the red carpet for you.

Sargent: Well, I’ve been up there, and I can attest to its beauty and its way of life as well. All of us here on this show and tons and tons of people nationally have been enormously inspired by what regular people did in that city and what they accomplished in bonding together against this invasion.

Can I ask, just for clarification purposes: What’s the source of that data? Where does it come from? Is this a city impact study of some kind?

Frey: Yeah, that’s our City of Minneapolis emergency-management study, I believe.

Sargent: So it sounds like, just to go big picture, Minneapolis has been deeply wounded in a semi-permanent way by the ICE presence there. I mean, let’s face it: Your city was attacked. It came under fire from an army of heavily armed paramilitary militia members directed by Donald Trump.

Can you talk a little bit more about what you think the damage is and how long it’s going to last? And what have you, kind of, concluded about what really happened here?

Frey: So, you’re right. The economic impact has, of course, been devastating. The impact on people’s lives, on the mental health of our kids—yeah, obviously a big impact. But I don’t like to use the, kind of, “wounded victim” narrative here, because the people here are tough as hell. I mean, we get knocked down seven times, and we get back up eight.

The city, again, before this Operation Metro Surge, was on a massive comeback. Crime was down in virtually every neighborhood, in virtually every category of the city. Business was up. You know, we had a whole lot of great stuff going on. I know that we’re going to get back to that in the immediacy—the very short aftermath following this end to Operation Metro Surge.

And there’s a lot of pride right now. So while people are hurt and tired—you’ve had people that have been taken away, family members of immediate families and our collective family—and when that happens, there’s a serious impact, and we’re going to do everything possible to move forward, to recover, and to get justice in every sense of the word. And there is this pride, though, that people do feel right now in who we are and what we are overcoming.

Sargent: Mayor, speaking of justice, there was an effort by local officials—you included—to sort of get brought into the investigation into what happened with Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Can you update us on that? What’s going on with those investigations? Is the city getting to be a part of that? What’s the status of all that?

Frey: So it was recently announced that the FBI pulled out, and they would not let the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension partner with them in an investigation of Alex Pretti’s killing. And that is deeply concerning, because if you aren’t hiding from anything, then don’t hide from it.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at the state level is a very reputable group of experts—legal and law enforcement. This is not like some radical, “way out there” group. This is a group of lawyers and cops, largely. And they have done this work before. They have conducted investigations that have both led to a charge and a lack thereof. So they’re the ones that should be conducting this investigation.

At the very least, they should be at the table reviewing all of the evidence that the FBI is seeing. The fact that they are not calls into question the credibility of the investigation itself.

Sargent: Is it your sense that the Trump administration simply can’t be trusted to do a fair investigation of this? I mean, after all, they did rush out at the very outset—right after both of these murders—to say that the agents had essentially operated impeccably. Is there any ground, from your point of view, for confidence in any federal government investigation into these shootings?

Frey: I think there’s good reason to not trust the way that these investigations are being conducted at this point. Certainly, I don’t want to dictate a conclusion any more than somebody else should, but when you start the investigation out saying, one, that the agent acted purely in self-defense; and two, you say that the victim was a “domestic terrorist”; and three, that’s the level of government that’s going to be running the investigation...you’ve got a problem.

I’m not saying that I should be running the investigation. I certainly have an opinion on what happened and why, because I’ve got two eyes—I saw a bunch of videos, you know, I have an opinion, obviously. I have tried not to dictate a conclusion myself. But when you’ve got the entity that is doing the investigation dictating a conclusion? Yeah, that certainly calls it into question.

Sargent: Mayor, to close this out, Donald Trump said the other day he had been in touch with you and the governor, and he seemed to suggest that he had made nice with you guys. Have you talked to Donald Trump recently, and is he saying anything remotely conciliatory about what happened?

Frey: I’ve not talked to President Trump recently. We had a good and productive conversation back a couple of weeks ago when we did speak. I’ve talked with Border Czar Homan on several occasions, also productive.

Look, it seems to be moving in the right direction. We need to—for the sake of our city, for the sake of our residents—we need to keep it moving there. And again, you know, to be very clear: No deal was struck. The policies that we had coming in are exactly the policies that we’ve got going right now.

Sargent: Mayor Frey, we all wish your city the best. Thank you so much for coming on with us.

Frey: Thanks so much for having me.