By Heather Schlitz and Bo Erickson
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Vice President JD Vance is expected to visit Minneapolis on Thursday to show support for a massive federal law enforcement operation underway in a city that has been on edge since an ICE officer shot dead a 37-year-old mother of three.
With the city and the country deeply divided over the January 7 fatal shooting of Renee Good, the vice president's visit is meant to show support for the work of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of a force of 3,000 federal law enforcement officers deployed to the area.
Minnesota has become the latest Democratic-leaning jurisdiction targeted by Republican President Donald Trump with a federal police show of force that the administration says is aimed at immigration violators and a fraud investigation involving social service programs in the Somali community.
Trump and his supporters have described the federal police rollouts as a necessary response to lax Democratic policies on crime and immigration. Local Democratic leaders and street protesters have accused ICE agents of aggressive tactics and racial profiling, and urged Trump to withdraw from what they say is a provocation dividing Americans.
ARMED OFFICERS, OBSERVERS WITH WHISTLES
Heavily armed federal officers in tactical gear have been combing the streets of Minneapolis rounding up suspects they say are dangerous criminal immigration violators, while sometimes ensnaring law-abiding U.S. citizens. Demonstrators have responded with their own observer patrols, blowing whistles to warn people of ICE raids while voicing their displeasure with Trump's escalation.
The operations have divided some of the president's own supporters.
Vance has taken a leading role in defending the Minnesota ICE shooting. Less than 24 hours after Good's death, Vance stood up for the officer involved, blamed the woman who was killed, and said the incident should be a political test ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
The vice president will host a roundtable event with local leaders and community members where he will discuss "restoring law and order in Minnesota" and meet with officers in a show of support, the White House said on Wednesday. He will also argue that Minneapolis' policy of banning city staff from enforcing federal immigration law has degraded public safety and endangered ICE officers, the White House said.
Vance is also expected to discuss how the Trump administration is taking on so-called sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with the administration's immigration crackdown, threatening to cut them off from federal funding starting on February 1.
'POLITICAL THEATER'
Richard Carlbom, chair of Minnesota's Democratic Party, said he hopes Vance will promote calm but fears political agitation.
"I think he is simply coming here for political theater. This entire situation we're being faced with is a retribution campaign by him and the president of the United States against Minnesotans," Carlbom told Reuters, calling on Minnesotans to "continue to resist the vice president."
Trump addressed the Minnesota issue during his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, saying, "ICE gets beat up by stupid people from leadership in Minnesota. We actually are helping Minnesota so much, but they don't appreciate it."
Patty O'Keefe, a 36-year-old Minnesotan and non-profit worker who was pepper sprayed and detained by federal agents in January after documenting ICE movements in the city, did not welcome Vance's visit.
"He's calling for law and order when it's his federal agents who are creating chaos and escalating violence," O'Keefe said. "His divisive rhetoric is not welcome here."
The president and the White House have tied the ICE operation to issues of welfare fraud in the state. Since 2022, at least 56 people have pleaded guilty, according to the Justice Department.
"Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot mass import foreign cultures," Trump said in Davos.
(Reporting by Heather Schlitz in Minneapolis and Bo Erickson in Washington; Writing by Daniel Trotta; editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
