Jacob Frey tells protesters to be peaceful or 'go home' after second ICE shooting in Minneapolis

WASHINGTON, DC: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who just a week ago blasted federal ICE agents and demanded they “get the f**k out” of the city, dramatically changed his tone as protests surged following a violent encounter that led to an ICE officer shooting a Venezuelan man in the leg.

Frey urged demonstrators to remain peaceful or "go home," calling for calm while still criticizing the federal enforcement operation that has inflamed tensions across the city.

Jacob Frey tells anti‑ICE protesters to stop 'taking the bait'

Mayor Jacob Frey stood at a news conference late Wednesday, January 14, shortly after the shooting and said, “I’m calling for peace.” He added, “Everybody has a role in achieving that peace — and we’re going to try and do everything we can to keep it.”

Frey, who continued to call ICE’s recent actions in Minneapolis “disgusting” and “intolerable,” urged protesters not to respond to what he described as President Donald Trump’s bait by causing more chaos in the streets.

The Democrat warned, “We’re in a position right now where we have residents that are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight ICE agents on the street. We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another.”

He later added, “If it were your city, it would be unacceptable there, too.” Frey also told protesters, “And for anyone that is taking the bait tonight, stop. That is not helpful … You are not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city. You are not helping the people that call this place home.”

Jacob Frey previously expressed rage against ICE

Jacob Frey changed his tone from the anger he showed last week after local mom Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by a federal agent.

At a press conference after that deadly shooting, he raged, “To ICE, get the f**k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here.”

He added, “Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite.”

Frey’s calmer remarks on Wednesday followed the Department of Homeland Security’s statement that a federal agent shot an illegal immigrant in Minneapolis after the man allegedly fled a traffic stop and then attacked the officer with a snow shovel and other objects. 

Around the same time, President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send military forces into the city if state lawmakers did not help stop the unrest. Frey has repeatedly blamed the nearly 3,000 federal officers already deployed in Minneapolis for much of the disorder.

On social media, he wrote, “Tonight a man was shot in the leg by an ICE agent on the Northside. No matter what led up to this incident, the situation we are seeing in our city is not sustainable.” 

He added that Minneapolis had about 600 police officers left to keep the streets safe while federal agents far outnumbered them. “Meanwhile, they’ve sent in 3,000 federal agents. America, this is not the path we can be on," Frey further stated.