Minnesota ICE protests live: Trump says DHS won’t intervene in ‘riots’ in Democratic-led cities as protesters march throughout US

The majority of Minnesota voters believe federal immigration agents were not justified in killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this month, a new poll reveals.

About 61 percent of voters believe the fatal shooting of Good was not justified, while 65 percent of voters said the same about Pretti, according to a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll.

Meanwhile, just 27 percent of voters said agents were justified in killing Good, while 16 percent said they were justified in killing Pretti.

Speaking to reporters Saturday night on Air Force One, Donald Trump was asked what he meant by his Truth Social post warning that “people will suffer” if they kick DHS cars or spit in officers’ faces.

“If they do anything bad to our people, they will have to suffer, I’m sorry,” he said.

“If they start spitting in peoples’ faces, punching our soldiers, our patriots — they will get taken care of in at least an equal way,” said the president, who was on his way to Mar-a-Lago from Washington, D.C., where he attended the Alfalfa Club dinner in a tuxedo.

“They’re not going to do that like uh… you know, you see it, the way they treat our people,” he said.

“And I said, ‘you’re allowed, if somebody does that, you can do something back. You’re not going to stand there and take it. If somebody spits in your face, that will not be a pleasant thing for the person who spits.’ We’re not letting people spit in our soldiers’ face as they stand at attention and they’re not allowed to do anything,” Trump continued. “If they throw bricks at a car, at you know, one of our vehicles, our very expensive vehicles, they’re going to be met with very serious force.”

Intensive care nurses had immediate doubts about claims made by federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.

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Two weeks after Don Lemon reported on an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church, federal agents arrested the former CNN anchor in Los Angeles as he was preparing to cover the Grammys, prompting several free press organizations and journalists to sound the alarm over the Trump administration’s “anti-free speech” crackdown.

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A Minnesota woman was detained by federal immigration agents — before local police intervened to have her released, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

The woman had been recording footage of immigration enforcement activity from her vehicle on Thursday when she was boxed in by federal agents.

Three agents approached her with guns drawn and shouted at her to “get out of the car,” video footage shows. She did not comply and was detained.

Shortly after, the woman' s husband spoke on the phone to the chief of police in St. Peter, who informed him that his wife had been released, according to MPR.

“It’s believed to be the first time a local police department in Minnesota intervened in a federal law enforcement action since the surge in immigration enforcement began two months ago,” according to the outlet.

In a post on social media, ICE said that the woman had been obstructing an active operation.

“During a targeted enforcement operation to arrest a serial criminal illegal alien with multiple arrests for assault, domestic violence and DUI, an individual began stalking and obstructing law enforcement officers,” ICE said.

“Despite officers activating emergency lights to issue a warning, the individual ignored commands, drove recklessly — running stop signs, nearly causing collisions, and almost ramming our law enforcement vehicles,” the agency added. “The individual was subsequently arrested.”

On Saturday, demonstrators staged a march in Minneapolis to protest against ICE activity in the city and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents.

Wearing sunglasses and a scarf obscuring his face, the armed ICE agent gets out of the SUV, approaches the vehicle and tells the activists that if they keep tailing him, they will be arrested.

“This is going to be your very last warning,” he says, as a fellow agent, his face also covered, begins filming us on his phone.

“You are impeding our operation,” he continues, adding as an apparent afterthought, “and traffic.”

Unperturbed, Will Stancil, 40, a local civil rights lawyer, responds calmly: “I have a constitutional right to follow you. I am not impeding the traffic.”

Stancil is among a growing network of “ICE commuters”, a large volunteer network of ordinary citizens in Minneapolis. They have given up weeks of their lives to patrol the streets and monitor the behaviour of federal law enforcement, as a crackdown grows increasingly deadly.

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The Senate voted on Friday afternoon to avert a government shutdown while also passing a stopgap measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security as Democrats and Republicans negotiate guardrails for immigration enforcement agencies.

Liam Conejo Ramos and 2-year-old Chloe were among at least seven Minneapolis-area children detained by federal agents in recent days, according to Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for Colombia Heights public school district.

Speaking to The Independent, she welcomed the news of Liam’s release and thanked the community for the “outpouring of support for him.” But she warned that children in her district remain at risk, saying teachers and students feel “hunted.”

“We have had several ICE agents driving up and down, and around our schools, circling throughout the day over the last few weeks,” she continued.

“We have staff members stationed at arrival and dismissal times at every corner of every school, even a couple of blocks away as constitutionally-trained observers” to look after the children, she said.

“We feel hunted,” she said. “We feel under siege.”

Jason Kuhlman, the principal of Liam’s school, told The Independent that two other students were detained by ICE on Thursday alone.

They now have a system where teachers walk children from at-risk communities to school, and are running ride-share programs to try to keep people safe because parents are too afraid to do the journey to school. Dozens of students are now learning online because they are too afraid to leave their homes.

“This is not political. This is about little humans wanting to come to school,” he said. “Education is being interfered with — kids can’t learn ... Racial profiling, terrorizing families and children, pulling Black and Brown people out of cars: I call it a snatch and grab.”

He added that when Liam is ready to return to his classroom, “everything is there waiting for him.”