Vice President Vance coming to Minnesota to meet with ICE agents
Vice President JD Vance
(WhiteHouse.Gov)
(CNN) – Vice President JD Vance is planning to travel Minneapolis on Thursday where he will meet with ICE agents and give remarks defending their immigration operations, White House officials told CNN.
Vance’s visit comes days after the Justice Department subpoenaed several high-profile Minnesota officials, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Attorney General Keith Ellison, as part of an investigation into whether the state and local leaders obstructed federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The trip, which is scheduled to follow the vice president’s visit to Toledo, Ohio, earlier Thursday, also comes as heightened tension roil the city, with continued protests following the fatal shooting of Renee Good earlier this month by an ICE agent.
Vance has repeatedly defended the ICE agent following Good’s death and argued that the shooting was a result of “radical left-wing” violence in response to the administration’s immigration policies.
“The Vice President will highlight the Administration’s commitment to restoring law and order in Minneapolis,” a White House official told CNN about the trip, adding that Vance “will point out how Minneapolis’s sanctuary city policies have degraded public safety and endangered ICE officers. He will also celebrate the essential work ICE agents have done to take dangerous, criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets.”
Vance is also expected to address recent fraud allegations against Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota, which spurred the ramped-up presence of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in the state.
Vance also recently announced a new assistant attorney general position to investigate fraud and abuse of tax-payer funded programs in Minnesota and other states, something he is also expected to focus on during his trip.
“Democrat officials in Minnesota have willfully neglected largescale fraud and undermined federal immigration authorities in their investigations of criminal wrongdoing,” a White House official said.
