The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents, multiple news outlets reported late Friday, citing officials familiar with the matter.
The investigation is said to stem from statements made about the surge of thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks, officials told the Washington Post, CBS, and CNN.
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The probe marks a significant escalation in the Trump Administration’s targeting of Democratic elected officials, and comes just days after President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests against the presence of thousands of immigration agents in the Minneapolis region.
Read more: Trump Threatens to Invoke the Insurrection Act to Deploy Troops to Minnesota. Here’s What That Means
Large-scale protests broke out following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and a poet, who was killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross as she tried to drive away from a protest.
Since then, Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that hundreds moreagents would be sent to the city. Nearly 3,000 immigration agents are now present in the city and surrounding area, ostensibly to arrest people in the U.S. illegally and to investigate allegations of fraud in Minnesota.
Walz condemned the alleged move in a statement, which follows a series of announcements of investigations into Trump’s political opponents.
“Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her,” Walz said in the statement.
Frey called the reports “an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, local law enforcement, and residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our city.”
“I will not be intimidated. My focus remains where it’s always been: keeping our city safe,” he added in a social media post.
Both Walz and Frey have condemned the surge of immigration agents in the city and the disturbances they have brought, but have repeatedly called on protesters to remain peaceful.
On Thursday, Noem suggested in a social media post that the pair had committed a crime by encouraging protests: “Mayor Frey and Governor Walz have to get their city under control. They are encouraging impeding and assault against our law enforcement which is a federal crime, a felony.”
The DOJ did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.
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