If Minnesota’s political leadership were operating in good faith, the latest arrests announced by the Department of Homeland Security would prompt at least a moment of reflection. A pause. Maybe even a recalibration. But experience suggests that won’t happen.
Instead, Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey continue to speak as though Immigration and Customs Enforcement is some rogue force preying on innocent families, rather than a federal agency removing individuals who represent a genuine danger to the public. The gap between rhetoric and reality has grown so wide that it now borders on willful deception.
The facts DHS has released in recent weeks are not abstract. They are not theoretical. They involve real people, real crimes, and real victims — precisely the kinds of cases any responsible government should want addressed.
Who ICE Is Actually Arresting
One of the most persistent myths pushed by Democratic officials in Minnesota is that ICE enforcement targets harmless people whose only offense is seeking a better life. DHS data tells a very different story.
Among the individuals recently highlighted by federal authorities is Sriudorn Phaivan, a Laotian national who entered the United States illegally and was later convicted of strong-arm sodomy involving both a boy and a girl. A final order of removal has been in place since 2018. For years, that order went unenforced while Minnesota’s sanctuary-style policies created bureaucratic and political obstacles to cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
This is not an isolated case. DHS officials have described a pattern involving repeat violent offenders, sexual predators, and individuals with extensive criminal histories who remained in Minnesota communities despite clear legal authority to remove them.
These are the people state and local leaders implicitly defend when they declare their cities “safe havens” and instruct law enforcement not to cooperate with ICE.
Violence Against ICE Is Not Hypothetical
The consequences of this posture are no longer confined to policy debates. They are playing out in real-world violence.
In one recent incident, three Venezuelan illegal immigrants allegedly ambushed a federal agent attempting to take one of them into custody. According to DHS, the agent was attacked with a shovel and a broom — improvised weapons used in a coordinated assault. The confrontation escalated to the point where the agent was forced to fire a defensive shot, striking one of the suspects in the leg.
That incident alone should have ended any serious discussion about whether immigration enforcement in Minnesota faces genuine danger. Instead, it was downplayed or ignored by the same officials who routinely condemn ICE for simply doing its job.
When federal agents are being assaulted with tools, surrounded by hostile crowds, and forced to defend themselves, the issue is no longer immigration policy. It is public safety.
Riots, Firearms, and the Limits of “Peaceful Protest”
The problem extends beyond illegal immigrants themselves. DHS has also made clear that some of the most volatile threats come from U.S. citizens who show up to protests prepared for violence.
Last Wednesday night in Minneapolis, federal officers arrested a man during a riot who admitted to carrying a firearm and ammunition while actively assaulting officers. According to DHS, the individual arrived at the protest with a gun and a box of ammunition in a bag, openly threatened law enforcement, and later kicked a metal smoke canister toward officers before physically pushing one of them.
When officers moved to arrest him, he confirmed he was armed. He did not possess a concealed carry permit.
This was not speech. This was not protest. This was armed confrontation.
Yet the same local leaders who denounce ICE operations often remain conspicuously silent when federal agents are assaulted, threatened, or targeted by armed agitators.
The Sanctuary Illusion
Minnesota’s leadership has sold voters a comforting illusion: that refusing to cooperate with ICE somehow makes communities safer and more humane. In practice, it has done the opposite.
Sanctuary policies do not prevent deportations; they delay them. They do not protect families; they protect offenders. They do not reduce violence; they concentrate it.
When local law enforcement is barred from sharing information, honoring detainers, or coordinating with federal agencies, individuals with criminal histories remain on the streets longer — sometimes for years — until encounters escalate into dangerous confrontations.
The Venezuelan ambush, the riot arrest, and the continued presence of convicted sexual predators all stem from the same political choice: prioritizing ideology over enforcement.
DHS Is Doing What Local Leaders Won’t
Faced with this reality, DHS has stepped in where state and local officials refuse to act.
Federal agents are enforcing laws passed by Congress, upheld by courts, and funded by taxpayers. They are not improvising policy. They are executing it.
Despite accusations to the contrary, DHS has repeatedly emphasized that its operations in Minnesota focus on individuals with criminal records, outstanding removal orders, or credible threats to public safety. The agency has also released detailed accounts precisely because misinformation has become so pervasive.
Transparency, in this case, serves as rebuttal.
Political Rhetoric Has Consequences
The hostility directed at ICE in Minnesota did not arise spontaneously. It has been cultivated.
When elected officials portray federal agents as villains, suggest they operate outside the law, or imply their presence constitutes “terror,” they create an environment where assaults become thinkable — even justifiable — to the most radical elements.
Words matter. So does silence.
Governor Walz and Mayor Frey have been quick to criticize ICE. They have been far slower to condemn violence against its agents.
That asymmetry speaks volumes.
The Question Democrats Won’t Answer
There is a simple question Minnesota’s Democratic leadership refuses to answer directly:
Should convicted rapists, child predators, and violent offenders with final deportation orders remain in the state?
Because that is what sanctuary policies accomplish in practice.
Every time an ICE arrest is framed as cruelty, every time federal enforcement is obstructed, the default outcome is that these individuals stay — until something goes wrong.
And when it does go wrong, the cost is paid by victims, by officers, and by communities that were promised safety.
What Comes Next
DHS has made clear that enforcement in Minnesota will continue, regardless of political resistance. Federal officials have also indicated that additional arrests are likely as investigations proceed.
Whether state and local leaders choose to cooperate — or continue to posture — remains an open question.
But one thing is clear: pretending these arrests involve harmless individuals no longer passes even a basic credibility test.
The evidence is public. The crimes are documented. The threats are real.
Final Thought
If Democrats in Minnesota were serious about public safety, the latest DHS arrests would give them pause. They would reassess their language, their policies, and their refusal to work with federal law enforcement.
But ideology rarely yields to evidence.
And until it does, DHS will continue doing what Minnesota’s leaders will not: removing dangerous individuals before the damage becomes irreversible.