Has Tim Walz ever told Minnesotans to not impede ice?
Executive summary
The record shows Governor Tim Walz has not told Minnesotans to "not impede ICE"; instead he has repeatedly urged peaceful protest, asked residents to document federal operations by recording ICE agents, and warned against escalating violence — statements that federal officials have characterized as encouraging obstruction and prompted a Justice Department inquiry [1] [2] [3].
1. What Walz actually said about public interaction with ICE
In a statewide address and subsequent public remarks Walz told Minnesotans to "protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully" and explicitly urged people to carry their phones and film ICE agents — "take out that phone and hit record" — framing documentation as both civic oversight and potential evidence for future prosecutions [4] [1] [2].
2. Walz’s call for calm and warnings against chaos
Walz repeatedly counseled restraint: he asked protesters not to "fan the flames of chaos" and urged peaceful behavior while condemning what he called a "campaign of organized brutality" by federal agents — language that pairs denunciation of ICE tactics with an admonition against violent confrontation [3] [5] [6].
3. How the federal government interpreted his remarks
Federal officials, including the Department of Homeland Security and statements relayed in reporting, have portrayed Walz’s rhetoric as encouraging resistance to federal officers; DHS accused state leaders of refusing to cooperate with ICE detainers and asserted that local criticism was contributing to unlawful obstruction, a framing that helped trigger a DOJ inquiry into whether state officials' statements rose to an illegal conspiracy to impede immigration agents [7] [3] [8].
4. The legal and investigative consequences
CBS News and The Guardian report the Justice Department opened an investigation into Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over statements related to federal immigration operations, with sources saying investigators are examining whether words by local leaders contributed to actions that impeded federal officers; Walz’s office says it had not received formal notice of an investigation as of reporting [3] [8].
5. The competing narratives: encouragement vs. documentation
Supporters of Walz and many local outlets present his instructions to film ICE as a lawful, nonviolent accountability tool and a way to gather evidence for court actions and elections, while critics — including DHS and some national conservative outlets — depict the same exhortation as guidance for harassment or obstruction; both sides cite the same public remarks but draw starkly different legal and moral conclusions [2] [7] [9].
6. What the sources do and do not support
The sourced reporting documents Walz urging peaceful protest and encouraging residents to record ICE activity [1] [2] [5], and it documents the federal government’s claim that local statements amount to encouraging impediment [3] [7]. There is no sourced evidence in the provided material that Walz told Minnesotans to "not impede ICE" in the affirmative; instead, the record shows he warned against violence and urged documentation and legal accountability [4] [6].
7. Bottom line and context for readers
Bottom line: across multiple on-the-record speeches and remarks, Walz counseled peaceful protest and urged people to film ICE agents — he did not instruct Minnesotans to obstruct or impede ICE, though federal officials interpret his rhetoric as contributing to a climate that may encourage such behavior, a dispute now part of an active DOJ inquiry [1] [3] [8]. The tension between urging oversight and avoiding obstruction is the central fault line in how these statements are being litigated in public and under federal scrutiny.