Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has publicly announced that his city will refuse to cooperate with federal civil immigration enforcement, insisting Minneapolis will not assist ICE in deportation operations and that city officials will not collect immigration-status information. The mayor has framed this as a compassionate stand for immigrant communities, but it’s plainly a political posture that puts ideology ahead of public safety.
St. Paul Police Federation president Mark Ross took to Fox’s The Big Weekend Show to rip into that refusal, calling the decision “not productive” and warning that shutting lines of communication with federal partners undermines investigations and officer safety. Rank-and-file law enforcement know firsthand that cooperation across jurisdictions saves lives and closes cases — not the virtue-signaling isolation Mayor Frey is selling.
This isn’t abstract theory; federal agents have been operating in Minneapolis amid intense controversy, and local officials have complained about a lack of transparency from some federal agencies while also resisting cooperation. The result is confusion, finger-pointing, and a leadership vacuum in a moment that desperately needs clear chains of command and mutual support between local and federal authorities.
Conservative Americans should be blunt: leaders who prioritize political theater over practical policing are betraying the people they swore to protect. When a mayor publicly shuts the door on federal partners, he emboldens criminal actors and leaves honest citizens more vulnerable — and then pretends the chaos is someone else’s fault.
There is a broader lesson here for other cities tempted to follow Frey’s lead. Mayors who make sanctuary postures a political badge of honor will be judged by the mounting toll of unchecked crime and by the officers who must do the real work without full support. Local government exists to keep neighborhoods safe, not to stage moral posturing for national applause.
Patriotic Americans should stand with the police and common-sense enforcement, not with politicians who side with politics over protection. It’s time for mayors and city councils to stop playing games, reopen lines of cooperation, and put the safety of families and small businesses before woke headlines. The country deserves leaders who defend order, enforce the law, and back the men and women on the front lines.
