Mayor Jacob Frey defended his reaction to the shooting death of a woman by an ICE agent, where he told federal immigration officials to “get the f–k out of Minneapolis” and said he hopes the public will “get to a point where we’re just not trusting everything they’re saying.” “We want them out,” he said. “It’s bad for business, bad for safety, bad for unity, bad for democracy, and bad for this republic.” “The quickest way you erode trust in government is to refuse to enforce the laws you pass and refuse to hold people accountable,” Frey said. “If there is no full, independent investigation of this shooting, what will the effect be? I think it further undermines trust in government.”

MAYOR JACOB FREY: I don’t have a specific statistic other than anecdotal evidence to point to, but ICE has had a massive and detrimental impact on a number of corridors throughout our city – including something like an 80% reduction in customer base along East Lake Street and many other corridors throughout the city. It’s bad for business, bad for safety, bad for unity, bad for democracy, and bad for this republic. We want them out. REPORTER: Mr. Mayor-if there is no independent investigation in this shooting, what would the effect of that be? MAYOR JACOB FREY: So the question is: if there is no full, independent investigation of this shooting, what will the effect be? I think it further undermines trust in government. The quickest way you erode trust in government is to refuse to enforce the laws you pass and refuse to hold people accountable. There are laws around this. There are standards around this. They should have no concern about having a full and transparent investigation – see where it leads, look at the facts, collect the evidence. The fact that they are, for some reason, concerned about having other police involved – other law enforcement through the BCA – that is wildly concerning. We’re not asking to run the investigation. We’re asking for people who are willing to see things clearly to be involved. REPORTER: They’ve blamed victims, told all sorts of lies about what happened. MAYOR JACOB FREY: That’s exactly right. We’ve got to get to a point where we’re just not trusting everything they’re saying – and I think you’re there at this point. They’ve also asserted that because you work for the federal government, you somehow have absolute immunity from committing crimes. That’s not true in any law school in America – whether it’s Yale, Villanova, or anywhere else. If you break the law, if you do things outside the scope of your job responsibilities, you can be held accountable. And this case, at the very least, is deeply troubling. At the most, as you’ve heard people say here, this is a serious problem – and it should be investigated. REPORTER: A couple questions for you. First, have you heard anything from the Trump administration or the president himself? And second, the administration has pointed to some of your comments right after the shooting as turning up the temperature in the city. Yesterday we saw protests that turned volatile at times – pepper spray, tear gas. Do you stand by your statements? MAYOR JACOB FREY: Yes. I stand by my statements. We stand by our statements. Look at what I actually said. I said it was a reckless abuse of power. Yes – it was a reckless abuse of power. I said the narrative the administration pushed immediately after the shooting was garbage, false, and BS. It was. I stand by every word of that. And this idea that my comments were inflammatory – come on, guys. I dropped an F-bomb. They killed somebody. Which one of those is more inflammatory? I’m going with killing somebody.
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