Minnesota elected officials talk immigration crackdown at CNN town hall

With Minnesota at the center of the national debate over immigration policy and enforcement tactics, a handful of state and local public officials, residents and faith leaders talked about the federal crackdown that has rocked the state to its core during a CNN “town hall” on Jan 28.

While the live broadcast event in a community center offered a modicum of calm compared to the inflamed rhetoric from podiums and on social media, the fundamental partisan fault lines remained.

Attorney General Keith Ellison said the federal government’s handling of Alex Pretti’s killing at the hands of federal agents “feels like a cover-up.”

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the immigration and Border Patrol agents’ aggressive approach to their jobs smacked of outdated, decades-old policing tactics.

And Mayor Jacob Frey said he had a “productive, collegial conversation” earlier this week with White House border czar Tom Homan, and the two agreed the tactics employed by federal agents in Operation Metro Surge needed to change. Homan didn’t commit to ending the federal operation by any certain date, but Frey said he hopes to see the number of agents go down soon.

Meanwhile, a trio of Republican state lawmakers offered varying degrees of nuance, but two of them blamed Frey and Gov. Tim Walz for the chaotic environment, accusing them of failing to assist the federal operation and of inflaming it with their words.

Moderated by CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Sara Sidner, the town hall marked a rare moment in recent weeks for prominent state Democratic and Republican elected officials to field questions from the public about the immigration operation that has plagued Minneapolis Since December and led to the killings of two citizens. The Republicans and Democrats never shared the stage at the same time.

Ellison said he doesn’t know the names of the federal agents who shot Pretti, and said it’s “rather absurd” that their names have not been made public. He said if the agents lawfully used force on Pretti, the federal government shouldn’t be afraid to release their names.

“It feels like a cover-up,” he said.

Republican state Reps. Nolan West and Elliott Engen and state Sen. Michael Holmstrom blamed Frey and Walz for the chaos in Minnesota, not the Trump administration, although West said “all of the people involved” were responsible and needed to “lower the temperature.”

West said he hoped President Donald Trump sending Homan to Minnesota to replace Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino would stop the negativity and find a way to “end this.”

Holmstrom said Pretti’s killing was “a rough thing to watch,” and although he had a constitutional right to carry a gun, people have to be “judicious” about when and where they carry.

The Department of Homeland Security has said 1,360 undocumented people are in Minnesota custody, but the Minnesota corrections department denies that. The total state prison population is about 8,000, of which about 200 are not U.S. citizens. And last year, 84 prisoners with detainers were released to ICE, according to the DOC.

Engen also said it was “disgusting” to apprehend people based on the color of their skin.

Frey said he’s never been prouder to be from Minneapolis, where, he said, tens of thousands of people have peacefully protested; neighbors have stood up for neighbors; and residents are helping those who are “terrified” to leave their homes for fear of being arrested by federal agents.

“You know, Minneapolis has been a place of heartbreak, but we are also a place of grit and perseverance,” he said. “The fact that we’ve gotten knocked down seven times, but we get back up eight, I think, is something that both makes me proud, but also the rest of the country is seeing.”