Dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activists stormed the Minnesota state capitol on Tuesday and crowded outside of Governor Tim Walz’s office to chant slogans.
A crowd of protesters has gathered at the capitol every day since ICU nurse and anti-ICE demonstrator Alex Pretti died on Saturday. A Customs and Border Protection agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, who was allegedly interfering with an immigration operation at the time.
On Tuesday, activists gathered outside of Walz’s office in the capitol building and screamed slogans such as “ICE out now” and “Do your job,” according to Fox News.
Earlier in the day, Walz met with border czar Tom Homan, who was dispatched to Minnesota in the aftermath of the Pretti shooting and the unrest it sparked, about federal immigration operations. Walz demanded a “swift, significant reduction” of federal forces in Minnesota and “an end to the campaign of retribution” in the state, according to NBC News.
The governor’s office said that Walz and Homan “agreed on the need for an ongoing dialogue and will continue working toward those goals, which the President also agreed to yesterday.”
The angst seemingly directed at the governor comes a day after Walz called President Donald Trump and had a “productive” conversation, according to Walz’s office. Trump said in a post about the call on Truth Social that he and the governor “seemed to be on a similar wavelength” about immigration operations in Minnesota.
“It couldn’t have been a nicer conversation,” Trump said of his call with Walz on Tuesday. “In fact, I said to my people, it’s hard to believe that’s the same guy I watch on television or I watch in the debate not doing so well – because we had a very reasonable conversation, very good conversation.”
Walz has previously compared ICE agents to Nazi Gestapo. Over the weekend, he compared the situation of illegal aliens in Minnesota to that of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who hid from Nazis in an attic for over two years before dying in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.
After the outcry over Pretti’s death, Trump has shuffled around personnel in an apparent attempt to reorient and reprioritize his deportation operation. Homan was dispatched to Minnesota on Sunday and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and some Border Patrol agents are expected to leave the state. Bovino will reportedly lose his role as commander and return to his previous position as chief of the El Centro sector in California.
Trump held a two-hour meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday. The next day, he defended Noem and told reporters that she would not lose her job.
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