What are quotes Mayor Fey of minneapolis has said regarding ice
Executive summary
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey publicly and repeatedly criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good, issuing blunt demands that federal agents leave Minneapolis and characterizing their presence as dangerous; his most quoted line was “Get the f— out of Minneapolis,” which he defended as a reaction to the fatal shooting [1] [2] [3]. He also framed ICE’s operations as “causing chaos” and “making our community less safe,” and called for calm even as he pressured federal authorities to depart [4] [5] [6].
1. The explicit, headline quote: “Get the f— out of Minneapolis.”
Mayor Frey’s most widely reported and repeated remark came during a press conference in the aftermath of the ICE officer’s shooting of Renee Good, when he said to ICE: “Get the f— out of Minneapolis,” a line cited verbatim by outlets including The New York Times, CNN and Fox News as capturing his immediate public rebuke of federal agents [1] [2] [6]. He later defended the profanity-laced rebuke as less consequential than the underlying fact of the killing, saying he had “dropped an f-bomb” and that critics should focus on the shooting itself [3].
2. Demanding ICE leave: “We are demanding that ICE leave the city and state immediately.”
The City of Minneapolis posted an official statement echoing the mayor’s demand: “We are demanding that ICE leave the city and state immediately,” language used by the mayor’s office to describe the presence of federal immigration enforcement as “causing chaos in our city and making our community less safe” [4]. Those comments positioned Frey not merely as criticizing tactics but as calling for operational withdrawal of ICE personnel from Minneapolis and Minnesota [4].
3. Framing ICE as a militarized, destabilizing force.
Frey described the deployed agents as a “mass militarized force” and referred to “heavily armed masked agents” whose conduct he labelled “disgusting” and “intolerable,” arguing their presence weakened public safety rather than enhanced it; he said that the “invasion” of such agents, emboldened with a sense of impunity, “has to end” [7] [2] [5]. In public remarks he also asked whether the federal response was “standing up for American families” or “tearing them apart,” pressing the administration to end raids he said were destructive [7].
4. Calls for peace while condemning ICE—tightrope messaging.
Although vocally demanding ICE leave, Frey simultaneously urged residents to remain peaceful and to avoid violence, warning against actions that could invite a larger federal or military response; outlets reported him asking protesters not to “take the bait” and to stay peaceful even as he criticized federal agents [6] [8] [1]. His office and appearances emphasized both public safety and accountability for federal actions [4] [3].
5. What Frey said he does not support—nuance on abolition.
When asked about abolition of the agency, Frey stated he does not support abolishing ICE, drawing a distinction between opposing the current administration’s tactics and advocating for the agency’s elimination [9]. That nuance has been used by both critics and supporters to frame his stance either as radical or restrained, depending on the outlet [9].
6. Misrepresentation and context: edits, social posts, and fact checks.
Several conservative broadcasts and social media posts selectively edited Frey’s comments to suggest he urged police to “fight ICE,” an interpretation PolitiFact and other outlets said distorted his words; PolitiFact’s contextual analysis concluded social posts mischaracterized what Frey actually said at a Jan. 14 press conference [10] [8]. The New Republic and fact-checkers flagged deceptive edits that changed the apparent meaning of his statements, while mainstream outlets reproduced his fuller quotes and context [8] [2].
7. Political fallout and competing framings.
Frey’s rhetoric drew sharp rebukes from national Republicans and praise from many local protesters and Democrats; the White House and some federal officials condemned his language while demonstrators and local leaders called for ICE’s removal and accountability, illustrating how the same quotes were weaponized across partisan lines [1] [11] [12]. Reporting shows both the visceral political backlash and the local mobilization that followed his statements [1] [12].
8. Limitations of available reporting.
This account summarizes direct quotes and widely reported paraphrases from the cited reporting; if readers seek the verbatim, full-length transcript of each press conference or the mayor’s complete remarks on specific interviews, those primary-source transcripts were not fully reproduced across these sources and therefore cannot be supplied here without consulting the original video or municipal archives [4] [2].