In Minneapolis press conference, JD Vance defends ICE killers, calls on Democrats, local police to suppress popular opposition
On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance visited Minneapolis, Minnesota to defend immigration police and blamed “far-left” agitators for causing “chaos” in the city. Vance said he came to the city in part to study the “weird reaction” of residents to masked, unaccountable federal goons assaulting, shooting, and killing people.
Vance’s provocative visit comes one day before tens of thousands of Minnesota workers and residents are set to hold a mass protest against the ongoing federal occupation of the state and the refusal of the Trump administration to prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross for the murder of Renée Nicole Good.
In the 30-minute press conference, Vance, standing in front of ICE vehicles and flanked by immigration Gestapo, praised federal agents, saying they are doing a “fantastic job” in spite of “far-left agitators,” who he claimed were causing “chaos” by defending their neighbors, friends and family members from being abducted and sent to for-profit concentration camps.
Vance defended the killing of Good, falsely claiming she “rammed” Ross with her car, and said that he did not want to “pre-judge” an investigation, which he claimed was ongoing, or let Ross be subjected to a “kangeroo court.” Video evidence, seen by the vast majority of the country, flatly contradicts Vance’s lying statement.
Underscoring that Ross was in no danger when he murdered Good, on Thursday, the law firm Romanucci & Blandin, which is representing Good’s family, released an independent autopsy confirming Ross shot her three times: once in the left forearm, once in her right breast, and the final fatal gunshot through the right side of her head at the temple. The bullet exited the left side of her head.
Obviously, if Ross had been “rammed” by Good, he would not have been able to fire three separate gunshots into her body and calmly walk away from the scene without suffering any injuries.
After shooting Good three times, neither Ross nor any other immigration thug provided any medical care to the dying mother and also prevented local residents and healthcare workers from providing assistance. More than six minutes after Good was shot, firefighters reached her and discovered she still had a “thready and irregular” pulse.
The same vice president who slandered Good as a “domestic terrorist” and a “deranged leftist” some 24 hours after she was murdered by Ross just over two weeks ago, called on local Democratic politicians to help him “lower the temperature.”
“Local officials,” Vance said, have “influence over the people” and should “tell them to cooperate” with the immigration police. In order to “lower the temperature,” Vance called on Democrats to order local police to round up protesters and residents who object to the ongoing occupation.
In order to further facilitate illegal kidnappings and abductions, Vance called for local politicians to provide the various police agencies within the Department of Homeland Security with state records.
“What we would like to do is talk to local officials and say, ‘You know what, according to the Medicaid rolls, where was the last address this person was domiciled?’ Or according to a SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) application, a food stamp application, maybe that can give us insight as to where that person is today,” he said.
Minnesota healthcare workers, many of whom will be participating in the January 23 demonstration, have reported to the WSWS that ICE agents are operating inside hospitals. One emergency medical technician said that after healthcare workers stabilize residents and immigrants who have been assaulted by ICE, they are quickly kidnapped.
In a brief question-and-answer session held after Vance’s remarks, the vice president defended DHS agents using administrative warrants to break into people’s private residences, a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects residents from illegal searches and seizures without a judicial warrant. In another lie, Vance said, “Nobody is talking about doing immigration enforcement without a warrant.”
Following the press conference, the media presented Vance’s comments as an acknowledgment that immigration police had made mistakes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Vance defended the killing of Good and promised that kidnapping operations would continue.
Vance’s comments underscore that the only social force that can defend democratic rights is the working class, organized independently of both capitalist parties and the system they defend.
Federal agents use 5-year-old child as bait to seize family members in Minneapolis suburb
Federal immigration agents in a Minneapolis suburb seized a 5-year-old child, Liam Conejo Ramos, on Wednesday, in an operation local school officials say deliberately used the child as “bait” to facilitate the arrest of his family members.
Liam’s father, Conejo Arias, was grabbed by ICE officers in the driveway of his home after returning from picking up his son from preschool. After his detention, another adult who lives in the home and was outside at the time of the arrest, “begged the agents” to leave the child in their care, according to school officials. ICE agents refused and instead instructed the 5-year-old to knock on the door of his home to determine whether anyone else was inside.
The child “was essentially used as bait,” Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said at a press conference Wednesday. “Why detain a 5-year-old? You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” Stenvik added.
Approximately 20 minutes later, Liam’s middle-school-aged brother returned home to find that his younger brother and father had been taken away. Both were transported out of state and are now being held in San Antonio in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, according to family representatives.
Their attorney, Marc Prokosch, said the family has an active asylum case and has complied with all immigration requirements. “I want to point out that they have done every single thing the right way and that they were supposed to in every step of their immigration process,” Prokosch said, adding that the father, an immigrant from Ecuador, does not have a criminal record. Liam’s detention may be legal under current immigration law, Prokosch said, but “legal doesn’t mean it’s moral.”
Prokosch said he is exploring whether to file a habeas corpus petition in Texas challenging the child’s detention, while also examining the family’s broader immigration case. A GoFundMe campaign titled “Help Bring 5-year-old Liam Home” has already raised over $156,000 in less than 24 hours.
The appeal notes that for over 24 hours, Liam’s mother “had no idea where her son and husband were—she only learned of their whereabouts when the father was finally able to call from Texas.”
During his provocative visit to Minneapolis Thursday, Vice President JD Vance defended the actions of the agents, claiming they were protecting the child after his father fled. “Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?” Vance said. “If the argument is that you can’t arrest people who have violated the law because they have children then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement.”
On the same day as Liam’s seizure, Stenvik said a 17-year-old high school student was taken by armed and masked agents while on the way to school, without a parent present. Two weeks earlier, a 10-year-old girl was taken by ICE agents on her way to elementary school and remains in a Texas detention center with her mother. Last week, another 17-year-old student was detained with her mother at their apartment.
District leaders also confirmed that an ICE vehicle drove onto Columbia Heights High School property Tuesday and approached a loading dock before administrators instructed the agent to leave.
Columbia Heights is a diverse north metro suburban district, where more than 50 percent of students identify as Hispanic or Latino. Across the Twin Cities, school districts have reported sharp attendance declines as families keep children home amid heightened fear of immigration enforcement near schools and bus stops. Columbia Heights officials said that on one day, nearly one-third of students were absent.
“The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken,” Stenvik said. “The onslaught of ICE activity in our community is inducing trauma and is taking a toll on our children, our families, our staff, and our community members.”
Vance visit comes days after Governor Walz’s appeal to Trump to “help restore calm and order”
US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Minneapolis Thursday followed a public invitation two days earlier by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for President Trump to visit the city. “I invite you to join me, and others in our community to help restore calm and order and reaffirm that true public safety comes from shared purpose, trust and respect,” Walz wrote in a statement posted on X.
Walz made his appeal after weeks of sustained protests and neighborhood confrontations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the murder of 37-year-old Renée Nicole Good by an ICE agent. Workers, students and young people have repeatedly taken to the streets to oppose raids that have generated widespread fear in immigrant and working class communities. On Friday, January 23, thousands are expected to take part in a citywide day of action to demand the removal of ICE and the prosecution of Good’s murderers.
Walz changed his tone from his previous criticism of the surge of 2,000 agents, which he described as “a war that’s being waged against Minnesota.” Far from calling for mass resistance to oppose the attack on democratic rights, Walz has urged residents to rely on the courts and elections. Walz has also urged Trump to “turn down the temperature” after the president threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to crush opposition.
The governor’s invitation was issued one day after Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison were served grand jury subpoenas as part of a Justice Department investigation into false allegations that Democratic officials have conspired to hinder ICE operations in Minnesota. In fact, local police have protected ICE agents and suppressed protests.
In his remarks in Minneapolis, Vance declared he had come “to turn down the temperature” and “end the chaos.” Vance said Trump did not see the need to invoke the Insurrection Act “right now,” but urged Democratic officials to deploy state and local law enforcement to suppress anti-ICE protests, which he characterized as being led by left-wing agitators.
While there are tactical differences between the two corporate-controlled parties over rhetoric and presentation, both agree on the necessity of state repression to confront the mass opposition that has erupted in Minneapolis. This only underscores the need for the growing movement by workers and youth to be politically independent of the Democratic Party and the trade union apparatus, which is aligned with it.
UPS workers back Minneapolis general strike, oppose Teamsters sabotage of walkout against ICE
UPS workers in Minneapolis expressed support for a city-wide general strike on Friday, January 23, to force the withdrawal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitary forces from the city and secure the prosecution of those responsible for the killing of Minneapolis resident Renée Nicole Good.
Workers spoke to WSWS reporters at the UPS distribution/sorting facility in Minneapolis Wednesday afternoon amid escalating opposition to the Trump administration’s militarized occupation of the city. Federal immigration agents, backed by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tactical units, have already arrested more than 3,000 residents in sweeping operations that have targeted entire neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. The repression has provoked weeks of protests, high school walkouts and community demonstrations across Minnesota.
In response, a coalition of unions and community organizations called for a city-wide “day of action” on Friday, urging residents to participate in “no work, no school, no shopping.” Workers interpreted the call as a general strike to use the power of the working class to shut down economic activity and oppose state repression.
However, the trade union apparatus has moved swiftly to suppress any independent action by workers. Teamsters Local 638, which has over 5,000 members in Minnesota and North Dakota, circulated a letter warning members that participation in a work stoppage would violate their labor agreements with the corporate bosses. “The collective bargaining agreement that applies to you includes a no-strike provision, so you are not legally permitted to strike,” the statement declared.
UPS workers spoke with WSWS reporters, sharply criticizing both the federal crackdown and the efforts by union officials to block collective action.
“We are not doing anything on Friday. It’s a general strike,” one worker said. “No work, no school, no shopping. If we can shut the economy down, that’s the goal. No ICE. Get out. That’s the only thing that’ll do it. Workers got to take the power. It’s ours to take.”
“The union official I spoke to said they can’t support it because it’s a work stoppage, so it doesn’t sound like Teamsters are backing us up,” he said.
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