Kristi Noem said ‘hundreds more’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be sent to Minneapolis in the coming days to uncover what she called ‘true corruption’ going on there.
‘We’re sending more officers today and tomorrow, there will be hundreds more in order to allow our ICE and our border patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely,’ the homeland security secretary told Fox News on Sunday.
Noem, who joined CNN’s Jake Tapper in a fiery exchange over the uproar following Renee Nicole Good’s death, also revealed ‘dozens’ of illegal immigrants have been arrested in sanctuary cities across the nation.
‘These sanctuary cities, such as Minneapolis, are extremely dangerous for American citizens, and since we’ve been there, we’ve arrested dozens and dozens of murderers, and rapists, individuals who have assaulted children and sodomized them,’ Noem told Tapper.
‘We just released a whole list of individuals, just in Minnesota, that we’ve arrested since we’ve surged personnel there, and it’s incredible.’
She went on to tell Tapper that the administration ‘would love it’ if local law enforcement agencies would team up with ICE instead of going against them.
That comes after both Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who the agency said ‘ensure that the worst criminal illegal alien offenders flock to their state,’ slammed the Trump administration for their rhetoric following the Good’s death.
After the mother-of-three was shot dead on Wednesday by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, Noem claimed she committed ‘domestic terrorism’ after allegedly trying to run him over, while Frey demanded ICE ‘get the f**k out of Minneapolis’.
Homeland Security Secretary announced ‘hundreds more’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will descend on Minneapolis following last week’s fatal shooting and uproar across the country over their presence
Federal agents are seen lined up in Minneapolis on Saturday as protests rage on
Frey went on another foul-mouthed rant targeted at the president and his administration, claiming they started to spin the narrative ‘immediately’ that Ross acted in self-defense.
‘The narrative that ICE is spinning immediately after this was that this was purely self defense, and that the act by the victim was some sort of domestic terrorism,’ Frey said on CNN on Thursday.
‘That, and I’ll say it again, is bulls***. That is bulls***.
‘The way they’ve been conducting themselves is also bulls***, and we all need to be very clear-eyed about what’s happening because, by the way, this is not just about Minneapolis, this is about the endurance of our republic.’
During her time on CNN’s State of the Union show with Tapper on Sunday morning, Noem doubled down on her claim that Good was going after the ICE agent that day.
Noem was asked by Tapper if she was ‘doing a disservice’ to the ICE agent who shot Good through the windshield of her car by drawing conclusions about the incident.
Noem defiantly responded that she hadn’t heard Tapper ‘say once what a disservice it’s done for Mayor Frey to get up and tell ICE to get the F out!’
The Trump administration has come to Ross’s defense over his shooting of Good, saying it occurred after Good intended to run the agent down with her car, while Democratic officials in Minneapolis say it was murder.
Renee Good was shot in the face three times by an ICE agent on Wednesday while protesting
In the days following her death, more footage was shared online showing Good and her wife, Rebecca, protesting along with others that day.
‘We stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns,’ Rebecca, 40, said Friday in a statement to MPR News.
She highlighted Good’s Christian faith, and they were raising their six-year-old son to ‘believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness.’
‘Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine,’ Rebecca added.
A newly released video filmed on Ross’s cellphone showed how Good and Rebecca seemingly taunted the officer in the lead-up to the deadly shooting.
The couple are understood to have been part of a community watch group that was actively resisting ICE.
Rebecca’s statement seemingly confirmed the Trump administration’s claim that the couple were participating in a protest against the planned detention of Somali migrants in the area.
Witnesses have claimed that Good and Rebecca were acting as legal observers and filming the protest.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry has defiantly stood by his city and bashed the Trump administration for their response to Good’s death and the presence of ICE agents there
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has also slammed the administration for how it has responded. He is seen at a candlelight vigil for Good with his wife, Gwen Walz, on Friday
Rebecca, in harrowing footage captured at the scene, admitted she encouraged Good to confront agents. ‘I made her come down here, it’s my fault,’ she cried.
The couple moved to Minnesota last year, after a brief stint in Canada. They are understood to have fled the US after Donald Trump was elected.
Rebecca said Friday that the pair ‘moved to make a better life for ourselves.’
Good’s death has sparked an uprising across the US with protests under the banner ‘ICE Out for Good’ continuing on and demonstrations reported from coast to coast.
Anti-ICE demonstrators have taken to the streets of New York City to Texas, and California, triggering arrests and mounting fear and unrest nationwide.
Austin Police confirmed that at least three people were taken into custody after officers moved against demonstrators following a march from the J.J. Pickle Federal Building.
Video from the scene showed officers pushing into the crowd as protesters screamed, and one could be heard shouting, ‘We’re with you,’ to a handcuffed marcher.
Texas officials made it clear they are taking a hard line.
Governor Greg Abbott said the Texas Department of Public Safety ‘was not putting up with defiant protesters’, and Lt. Chris Olivarez, a DPS spokesperson, emphasized that while peaceful assembly is protected, ‘violence, threats to the public or law enforcement, obstruction of roadways, and damage to property will not be tolerated.’
