Decrying ‘false narrative,’ ICE leaders aim to shift perspective of immigration crackdown in Minneapolis

After weeks of minimal public communication, federal officials held their third news conference in a week on Friday, Jan. 23, the latest in a series of attempts to elevate their narrative of the immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota.

Officials accused critics of “irresponsible rhetoric,” highlighted arrests of violent offenders and criticized media coverage of Operation Metro Surge, which has brought thousands of immigration agents to the state.

“This is why I’m up here almost every day to show you the good work my officers are doing,” said Marcos Charles, assistant director of enforcement and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“The public needs to know about the dangerous criminal illegal aliens we’re arresting; they need to see the faces of the monsters these agitators are trying to protect.”

Charles’ comments were delivered one day after Vice President JD Vance landed in Minneapolis to talk with business leaders and ICE agents, and to “lower the temperature” around immigration enforcement in Minnesota. The federal government is facing growing criticism over arrests of U.S. citizens, confrontations with protesters, accusations of racial profiling and the recent detainment of a 5-year-old boy.

The remarks also come as recent polling shows support lagging for the enforcement tactics employed by federal immigration agents. In a Jan. 12-17 poll by the New York Times, 61% of respondents said they believe ICE tactics have gone too far, including 71% of independents and 19% of Republicans.

Only 26% said the tactics were about right, and 11% said they had not gone far enough.

“They’re not being arrested because they violated immigration laws,” Vance said.

He said that if federal agents violate the law, racially profile people, or violate the rights of a citizen, “that is something we will take very seriously.” But he said “many of those most viral stories of the past couple weeks have turned out to be at best partially true.”

“We want to try people based on reality, based on the truth, based on context,” Vance said.

He pointed to the story of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old Columbia Heights preschooler whose detention has brought international scrutiny to ICE agents. Vance said he was initially horrified by the account, but after learning more details, he concluded that agents had no other choice.

Charles said ICE was conducting a “targeted enforcement operation to arrest” Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, Liam’s father, who Charles said fled the scene and abandoned the boy.

School leaders have disputed that account, saying that another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let him take care of Liam.

Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino criticized media coverage of the boy’s detention before pivoting to stories of children being trafficked across the border.

Bovino castigated Minnesota media for not reporting on a July 2025 raid at a California marijuana farm, where federal officials said they rescued more than a dozen children from potential exploitation and forced labor.

Bovino said U.S. citizens are separated from their families daily when arrested by local police, but those situations don’t cause a similar uproar.

Bovino and Charles have backed off their frequent accusation that Minnesota doesn’t cooperate with ICE after state Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell accused federal authorities of spreading misinformation.

On Jan. 22, Bovino said federal agents have no planned end date for the surge. He said the crackdown will continue “until there are no more of those criminal illegal aliens roaming the streets of Minneapolis.” He said federal authorities had arrested more than 3,300 people in Minnesota since the surge began in late November.

But federal officials said “false narratives” have made it harder to do their jobs. Charles said on Friday that a group of “agitators” with a van filled with “shields” tried to block traffic at the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling to prevent immigration enforcement.

“It’s a shame to see politicians and activists spreading fear in their communities by creating a false narrative about what we do and who we are and who we arrest,” he said.