Fetterman Calls to End Minneapolis ICE Operation as City Descends into Chaos

As Minneapolis spirals into a hotbed of unrest, Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) is urging the Trump administration to immediately end its immigration enforcement operation in the city, calling it an “ungovernable and dangerous urban theatre.” His comments come just days after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who allegedly approached agents while armed.

Fetterman’s statement, given to Fox News Digital, shows a remarkable break from much of his party’s extreme anti-ICE agenda though critics say he’s still prioritizing optics over law and order.

“The operation in Minneapolis should stand down and immediately end,” Fetterman said. “It has become... incompatible with the American spirit.”

Fetterman went on to restate his opposition to defunding ICE something the radical Left continues to push but he criticized the agency’s tactics in Minneapolis and claimed they must “change.”

Here’s the double-speak: While Fetterman says he supports border security and deporting criminal migrants, he also says the agents tasked with that job should pack up and leave one of the most chaotic cities in the country. He claims he wants a path to citizenship for “hardworking” migrants but ignores the fact that many of the ongoing federal operations are targeting violent criminal aliens, not families or workers.

Fetterman’s contradictory position underscores a broader theme within the Democratic Party: Say one thing, do another.

Meanwhile, his wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, took to X with a far more radical tone, blasting ICE and Trump’s immigration crackdown as “terror” and saying that her years of illegal residency in the U.S. filled her with “chronic dread.” She claimed that current enforcement efforts are “devastatingly cruel and unAmerican.”

The administration, however, remains clear-eyed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed local Democrat leaders for refusing to cooperate with ICE and for allowing chaos to overtake the Twin Cities. Leavitt laid out three straightforward expectations if peace is to return:

• Minnesota must turn over all criminal illegal aliens in their jails to ICE.

• Local police must hand over any arrested illegal aliens to federal officers.

• Police must assist ICE in tracking down and detaining criminal aliens—especially violent offenders.

President Trump, responding to the growing unrest and politicized obstruction from Democrat leaders, has deployed border czar Tom Homan to oversee ICE operations in Minnesota and coordinate the expanding federal fraud investigation that’s underway.

Trump also revealed he had a “productive” phone call with Governor Tim Walz, though Walz continues to resist full cooperation. Walz, who previously compared ICE to the Gestapo and likened illegal immigrants to Anne Frank, has done little to restore order in his state—and his incendiary rhetoric has only poured gasoline on the fire.

Let’s be clear: Minneapolis is not falling apart because of too much law enforcement—it’s collapsing under the weight of radical leftist policies, sanctuary city nonsense, and elected Democrats who would rather defend illegal aliens than their own citizens.

Fetterman’s call to “stand down” federal agents may earn him praise in progressive circles, but it does nothing to restore law and order in a city overrun by criminal activity, anti-ICE mobs, and violent resistance.

America deserves cities that cooperate with federal law enforcement, not ones that coddle criminals and push propaganda.

share this with others who support real border security and common sense.