While American citizens have been protesting in Minnesota and demanding accountability from the Trump administration, Vice President JD Vance had different priorities.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered to oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with people holding signs against the federal agency.
In recent weeks, Minnesota has seen several tragic incidents, including the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, as well as the detainment of five-year-old preschooler Liam Ramos.
Highlights
- JD Vance prioritized defending ICE officers over addressing protests and calls for accountability in Minnesota amid recent tragic killings.
- Thousands protested ICE actions in Minnesota following the deaths of ICU nurse Alex Pretti and mother Renee Nicole Good.
- Vance claimed local police refused to protect off-duty ICE officers from mobbing, blaming local officials for chaos and violence.
- Vance's social media post sparked widespread outrage, with critics accusing him of defending ICE violence and lacking remorse.
JD Vance’s response to ICE has received outrage
Image credits: Jim Watson/Getty Images
Pretti was shot on January 24 during an encounter with ICE agents amid protests over Good’s killing. The Trump administration defended the latest shooting as self-defense, despite witness footage showing contrary evidence.
As outrage continues, Vance addressed the situation in a post on X. “When I was in Minneapolis, I heard a number of crazy stories,” Vance wrote. “But near the top of the list: A couple of off duty ICE and CBP officers were going to dinner in Minneapolis. They were doxed and their location revealed, and the restaurant was then mobbed. The officers were locked in the restaurant, and local police refused to respond to their pleas for help (as they’ve been directed by local authorities).”
Vance continued, “Eventually, their fellow federal agents came to their aid.” He called the encounter “a taste of what’s happening in Minneapolis because state and local officials refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.”
“They have created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border,” he added.
“The solution is staring everyone in the face. I hope authorities in Minneapolis stop this madness,” Vance said, ending his rant.
Image credits: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey have asked ICE to leave their city and accused the federal government of “targeted enforcement of violent offenders.”
Frey previously told ICE agents to “get the f**k out” of Minneapolis.
“You can't say with a straight face that pulling citizens off the street or going into a school is a targeted action when clearly it’s not,” he had said last week.
“Take the show of force off the streets and partner with the state on targeted enforcement of violent offenders instead of random, aggressive confrontation,” Walz wrote on X recently.
Vance’s post sparked strong reactions online.
One user said, “The craziest story I heard was when two of your ICE agents unloaded 10 bullets into a VA nurse for no reason you sick f**k.”
Vance wrote about ICE officers being doxxed and mobbed in response to the recent shooting of Alex Pretti
Image credits: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Gun control activist David Hogg said in response to the post, “Your ‘solution’ is to tell Americans obey the invasion of our communities by masked government agents as they abduct people and execute Americans in the street or else we will also get executed. Thats not a solution. It’s a violation of our rights. You are a tyrant.”
“Vance is the most morally repulsive person in politics. He watched Renee Good and Alex Pretti be murdered like the rest of America, but, unlike the rest of America, decided to blame them and defend their killers more than he has ever defended his own family from the bigots he’s trying to court for 2028,” said a social media user.
“He’s not going to be able to come back from this. He won’t be able to say, ‘I didn’t know better,’ because he did.”
“Vance knew exactly what he was getting into, then prostrated himself before a guy who called him a groveling a** kisser at a rally. He has no shame, no honor, no principles—he doesn’t even have a personality and is instead just an amalgam of the takes he scrapes from the online right on any given day. There has never been a more hollow person on the national stage,” the user wrote.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also took to X to condemn Vance’s statement. “You are defending the open killing of everyday Americans for exercising their Constitutional rights. First, the mother of a 6 year old child. Now, an ICU nurse to veterans. Both shot at nearly point blank range. All without reflection or remorse. People will not forget this,” she said.
Jon Favreau, the former director of speechwriting for Barack Obama, said on X, “Do you hear yourself?? Your federal agents shot a man ten times and you’re complaining about their f*****g lunch being interrupted?? What the f**k is wrong with you??”
“An American is dead. ICE pulled the trigger. And JD Vance is out here running a sympathy campaign for the people with badges instead of demanding accountability for the citizen who got killed. This isn’t ‘tough on crime.’ This is cover for tyranny. If your first instinct after a citizen is killed is deflection, you’re not protecting America, you’re protecting the machine,” a netizen said on X.
Another said, “Is this a joke? This is at the top of the list? How about 10 shots in 5 seconds and the death of an innocent ICU nurse who’d come to the aid of a woman being pepper sprayed.”
“It's very shameful, that, in a moment of national tension, the Vice President does not act like a statesman, does not promote the common good, but, rather, has taken every opportunity to sow confusion, undermine trust, and turn this people against itself,” said a third.
A fourth X user said, “A Federal agent's dinner was inconvenienced so we can execute you in the streets now.”