Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official, complained on Thursday that protesters in Minneapolis were stalking federal agents, and demanded that the local police collaborate with the federal authorities on their immigration crackdown.
Citing one example, Mr. Bovino said agents had faced “significant resistance” when merely trying to use a restroom at a gas station.
“A lot of people would call that stalking,” he told reporters at a news conference. “I don’t think any of us would like to be stalked, but being stalked for eight to 10 hours at a time is not a very favorable climate.”
Mr. Bovino’s comments underscored the rising tensions not just between immigration agents and protesters in Minneapolis, but between the federal government and the local authorities, including police leaders, who have called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave the area.
“Where was the Minneapolis police during that eight-hour stalking event?” Mr. Bovino said.
Discord between federal officials and Minnesota law enforcement leaders has escalated in recent days.
On Tuesday, three top police officials criticized the tactics of federal agents. People “are scared to death” and “afraid to go outside,” Chief Axel Henry of the St. Paul Police Department said.
Efforts to reach the police in Minneapolis and St. Paul for comment on Thursday were not immediately successful.
On Thursday, Mr. Bovino said federal agents were conducting “ethical and moral law enforcement” and that agents were “ecstatic” to be in the Twin Cities. Marcos Charles, the head of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE, held up photos of men with criminal convictions who had been arrested in recent days.
Mr. Bovino’s comments on Thursday came hours before a planned visit to the Twin Cities by Vice President JD Vance, who was expected to host a round-table event.
Mr. Vance has been among the Trump administration’s most vocal supporters of the federal agents involved in the nationwide immigration crackdown.
“I want every ICE officer to know that their president, vice president and the entire administration stands behind them,” Mr. Vance wrote on social media after an agent killed Renee Good, a resident protesting ICE’s presence in the Twin Cities more than two weeks ago.
As agents have flooded the region in recent weeks, they have been met by protests and resistance, including from citizen groups that have mobilized to track and document their work — and sometimes obstruct it.
The administration has sought to quell dissent, describing the protesters as domestic terrorists and “agitators” and sanctioning the use of pepper spray against them. On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrests of at least two people who disrupted a church service on Sunday in St. Paul to protest a pastor’s apparent work as an ICE official.
Mr. Vance’s scheduled visit came as Minnesota residents, businesses and cultural institutions were planning for a general strike on Friday. The protest of what federal officials have called Operation Metro Surge has been organized by labor unions and faith leaders.
“No work. No School. No Shopping,” reads one poster publicizing the planned strike. Hundreds of businesses said they would participate.
“We will not quietly endure fear and violence in our communities,” a representative for one business, the Grand Jeté Dance Store in St. Paul, wrote on social media to announce that the store will close Friday.
Tim Arango is a correspondent covering national news. He is based in Los Angeles.
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