Trump Says Minneapolis Mayor is ‘Playing With Fire’ in Rejecting Immigration Enforcement

Trump and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey remain in disagreement over immigration enforcement despite border czar Tom Homan’s mediation efforts.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speaks during a press conference in Minneapolis on Jan. 22, 2026. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Jan. 28 warned Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey that he is “playing with fire” by refusing to enforce federal immigration laws.

Trump was reacting on social media to a statement that Frey released the day before, following a meeting with border czar Tom Homan.

Trump sent Homan to riot-plagued Minneapolis to foster cooperation between local authorities and federal immigration officers.

Frey said in a Jan. 27 post on X that he had a productive conversation with Homan but “made it clear that Minneapolis does not and will not enforce federal immigration laws.”

Trump, in a follow-up post, said Frey’s response was surprising in light of the meeting with Homan.

“This is after having had a very good conversation with [Homan],” the president wrote. “Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!”

Frey responded shortly after Trump’s statement.

“The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws. I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to [Minneapolis] & is from Ecuador,” Frey wrote in a Jan. 28 post on X. “Everyone should feel safe calling 911.”

Homan’s deployment to Minnesota follows two separate controversial incidents, both in Minneapolis. Federal officers fatally shot Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, both U.S. citizens, during confrontations.

White House border czar Tom Homan speaks with the media at the White House on June 30, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The Pretti shooting came two days after Vice President JD Vance met with community leaders and federal officers in Minneapolis and called for cooperation from state and local police and elected leaders.

Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Thousands of officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have been carrying out Operation Metro Surge.

Agents have arrested at least 3,000 criminal illegal immigrants during a six-week period in Minnesota, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier this month. In total, agents have snared 10,000 criminal illegal immigrants in the North Star State since Trump’s promised immigration crackdown began with his second presidency in January 2025.

Vice President JD Vance speaks ahead of the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington on Jan. 23, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Vance said that in other states, arrest totals have been higher, as authorities met with less resistance than in Minnesota. He and the president have both suggested that the protests are designed to distract from a major investigation of systemic welfare fraud in the North Star State.

Officials have said that Good and Pretti were not part of the general protests. Rather, both showed up at scenes where officers were trying to arrest specific illegal immigrants who had criminal records. Investigators are now probing online networks of anti-immigration-enforcement agitators who have allegedly been coordinating disruptions of federal agents’ work.

Both shootings further inflamed protesters. The Pretti shooting, which occurred during a scuffle with Customs and Border Protection officers, provoked calls for Noem’s removal.

On Jan. 27, the president told reporters that she should not resign and that she is “doing a very good job.”

Frey’s Jan. 28 statement further expanded on his city’s policy of non-cooperation with immigration enforcement.

He said it is akin to the “sanctuary city” policy that Rudy Giuliani, a Trump ally, espoused while he was New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001.

The New York City policy predates Giuliani’s tenure. The policy began in at least 1989, federal officials said in a lawsuit filed against New York City in 2025.

The federal government has also sued Minnesota and its cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, along with other jurisdictions employing policies designed to shield illegal immigrants.