Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey delivered a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration on Thursday in an op-ed in The New York Times, in which he laid bare the contrasting current federal response to crises with the bipartisan cooperation that followed a 2007 bridge collapse.
In the blistering op-ed, Frey recalled that Republican President George W. Bush showed up to help Minneapolis following the tragedy that killed 13 people despite the city’s Democratic leadership being outspoken critics of his policies.
“Politics stopped, quite literally, at the water’s edge,” Frey recalled in the piece, titled “I’m the mayor of Minneapolis. Trump is lying to you.”
That cooperation, however, is ancient history under President Donald Trump. Frey blasted Trump for encouraging violence during 2020’s George Floyd civil unrest and denying federal disaster relief to Minneapolis. He saved his harshest criticism for the Trump administration’s handling of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in his city.
“The actions of the ICE agents deployed to my city are dangerous, and now, even deadly. But that danger has been compounded by the administration’s incredulous claims that the victim committed an act of domestic terrorism,” he lamented.
Following the fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Good by an ICE agent, Frey accused the administration of spreading a “lie” and “demonizing” the victim. He noted that Trump falsely claimed Good “behaved horribly” and “ran him over,” despite video evidence showing her trying to drive away from the scene.
“By defending the lie about this clearly avoidable shooting in Minneapolis and refusing to allow Minnesota officials to investigate the crime, the administration is sending a message to the entire country: If you show up for your immigrant neighbors, or even are simply present when those neighbors are taken, your rights will not be protected by the law and your life will be at risk,” he warned.
Frey delivered a stark message to his fellow Democratic mayors.
“Cities are on the front lines of this dark hour in our national politics. But after we weather this moment — and we will weather it — it will be on us to light the way forward. The best way to convince the country that welcoming and lifting up immigrants is good for its communities is by proving it in our own cities.”
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