Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speculated about the legality and practicality of having the city police battle federal immigration enforcement officers during a conversation with Tim Miller on “The Bulwark” podcast. “Can our cops arrest them? From a legal perspective, yes,” Frey said. “From a practical perspective, to state the reality, it does get kind of hard when they drastically outnumber us, and they have bigger guns than we do. We don’t want to create warfare in the street.” “Nobody-our police officers, ICE agents, civilians-nobody can act illegally. Nobody can,” he said. “We’re trying to find the best way to prevent these ICE agents from acting illegally while not causing a firestorm on the street.”

MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR JACOB FREY: Give some credit to our police officers, because they areexhausted. They are working tirelessly. They are getting all kinds of calls. “My friend or family member is being kidnapped. There is an illegitimate use of force taking place.” Not to mention, they have the regular day-to-day stuff that happens when ICE isn’t here that they need to deal with. We have fewer officers per capita than we need, and so they’re doing a great job, but they’re tired. They’re being put in the middle of these horribly tense situations. And it’s not like they go home to Missouri or Atlanta or Nebraska or some other state after this. They’re here. These are people who are charged with keeping people safe in Minneapolis, not just for the few weeks during this ICE occupation, but for the long haul. So, yeah, it’s deeply concerning that they’re getting put in the middle of it. And at times, they’re even getting blamed for things that they didn’t do. We have worked so hard to generate trust between officers and community members over these last several years since George Floyd was murdered here. And we’ve made huge strides. I mean, community members-some of the most intense activists who did not like cops very much, probably still don’t-are saying that our officers are doing the right thing. But I think the question that you’re getting to, which I have not wholly answered yet, is that you’re basically asking: can our cops arrest them? From a legal perspective, yes. From a practical perspective, to state the reality, it does get kind of hard when they drastically outnumber us and they have bigger guns than we do. We don’t want to create warfare in the street. We want to keep our communities safe. We’re trying our very best to do that. So nobody-our police officers, ICE agents, civilians-nobody can act illegally. Nobody can. We’re trying to find the best way to prevent these ICE agents from acting illegally while not causing a firestorm on the street. Am I saying it won’t happen? No, I’m not saying it won’t happen. What I’m saying is that I am in charge of keeping the peace and directing our police officers, and I have to keep everybody safe. So I can’t commit to anything. TIM MILLER: It’s crazy that you’re even there, right? I can’t commit one way or another to how our law enforcement officials should deal with rogue federal law enforcement. And it’s like these are the don’t tread on me guys, and they have federal agents coming into your city, menacing your citizens who aren’t doing anything illegal. And you have to have a separation-of-powers discussion in the mayor’s office. It’s crazy. MAYOR JACOB FREY: The bottom line is we are working on every strategy that is available to protect our residents. And where illegality is taking place, where people are being mistreated and hurt, our officers are going to be there to help the best they can to keep people safe. Now, what that action looks like obviously depends on the situation. Again, the goal they’re trying to get to is keeping people safe. Anybody can get arrested.

Here’s the full conversation:
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