Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday said the Trump administration will send "more officers" to Minnesota as tensions rise following last week's fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
"We're sending more officers today and tomorrow," Noem said during an appearance on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. "They'll arrive -- there'll be hundreds more, in order to allow our ICE and our Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely."
Newsweek has reached out to the White House and DHS by email on Sunday afternoon for comment.
Amid the White House's aggressive anti-immigration crackdown in major cities throughout the country, Good's death has turned into a political lightning rod as the administration staunchly defends the ICE officer, identified in media as Jonathan Ross, while protests against the agency have spread across the city and the nation.
Noem previously referred to Good, a U.S. citizen, as a "domestic terrorist," and Vice President JD Vance called her a "deranged leftist" who was threatening the agent's life by trying to weaponize her car against him. Others have disputed this account, however, especially after video of the incident from the ICE officer's perspective was made public.
Minnesota had become a significant focus for the administration even before the fatal shooting due to an ongoing investigation into alleged welfare fraud, with First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson saying that $9 billion or more in federal funds allocated to 14 state-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen.
Noem spoke with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo about the response to the shooting, particularly the path forward for the federal government's presence in Minnesota.
When asked what more ICE can do to stop "agitators," Noem said more officers would be deployed to the state.
"If they conduct violent activities against law enforcement, if they impede our operations, that's a crime and we will hold them accountable to those consequences," Noem said.
She continued: "Unfortunately, when you don't have the partnership of the city -- [Minneapolis] Mayor [Jacob] Frey and Governor [Tim] Walz -- have been very clear they're going to continue their rhetoric, they're going to continue to put criminals and corrupt illegal aliens above the people that live in that city and in that state -- they've said they're not going to help us, so we're going to make sure we protect our officers, but that we also follow through on making sure those criminals are brought to justice."
The administration insists that ICE officers are carrying out lawful orders and should not be impeded, although some have disputed Vance's claim that Ross had "absolute immunity" while carrying out his duties.
"The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action -- that's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job," Vance told reporters at the White House last week.
Noem warned that people who try to hamper ICE officers face potential arrest and criminal prosecution.
"I'll remind everyone that every single thing that I've said has been factual about what's going on in Minneapolis, what's been going on in Minnesota, and with the incident that we had where we had a tragic loss of life," Noem said.
She continued: "These law enforcement officers are trained to be in situations that are dangerous, and they rely on that training each and every day to make right decisions, and that's what I'm so grateful for, is that we have professionals that stepped up and took an oath to serve this country and the American people."
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X on Sunday: "ICE isn't the problem. The problem is sanctuary politicians and the violent criminal illegal aliens they protect. President Trump and this administration work to protect every single American and make sure that they can live in a safe community and can raise their kids without fear."
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social last week: "I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do their job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!"
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who worked in the Biden administration, said last week during an interview on YouTube: "We have an ICE agent who should have been trained not to be in front of a vehicle and never to shoot into a moving vehicle, and yet this happened on [Kristi Noem's] watch. The whole point of Homeland Security is to make this country more stable and safe. And it is very clear on this administration's watch that the opposite is what's happened."
Officers will arrive in Minnesota over the coming weeks to bolster the ICE operations in the state as the administration tries to shore up support for federal agents.