Minneapolis Mayor Frey asks ICE to leave city after mass shooting
Mayor Jacob Frey held a press conference after ICE agents shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
For many Americans, their first introduction to Jacob Frey may have been this week’s video of a press conference in which the mayor of Minneapolis, visibly shaken by the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by federal immigration agents, told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “Get out of Minneapolis.”
But the three-term mayor with a boyish smile is used to being in the spotlight and adept at navigating crises with determination and integrity while working fiercely with the Minnesota communities he represents. He has shown he is not afraid to challenge the federal government, as he has been at odds with the Trump administration as the leader of the latest Democratic-led city targeted by the president’s increased deportations.
Frey’s emotional remarks were in stark contrast to the state’s “Nice Minnesota” stereotype.
“He basically just tells people the truth, whether they want to hear it or not,” said Lisa Goodman, a longtime Minneapolis City Council member who is now the city’s director of strategic initiatives in the Frey administration. “He’s not passive-aggressive, which is alarming to some people, especially in Minnesota…He speaks his truth and doesn’t back down from it.”
Andy Aoki, a political science professor at Augsburg University in the city, said the mayor’s statement “certainly has a very strong tone and probably represents the feelings of the majority of Minneapolis residents.”
“Otherwise, he doesn’t come across as a loud, aggressive, bombastic politician who is quick to swear. He comes across as more thoughtful, thoughtful, and more direct.”
This week’s incident was the flashpoint many feared in a powder keg of increased activity by immigration authorities in Minneapolis and across the country. But that was just the latest adversity Frey, 44, has faced in his eight years as mayor.
In May 2020, less than a mile from the scene of this week’s ICE incident, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. In August, two children were killed and 14 others injured in a shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in the city. And recently, President Donald Trump launched widespread attacks on the state’s Somali community following reports of fraud involving Somali immigrants.
Then, on January 7, a U.S. immigration officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good as she was riding in her car. The event was captured on video and subsequently analyzed in detail and hotly debated, but initially appeared to contradict the government’s explanation of what happened.
On Friday, Mr. Frey doubled down on his anger at the Trump administration’s portrayal of Mr. Good’s shooting as an act of self-defense, penning a guest editorial for the New York Times with the headline, “I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying to You.”
“The chaos that ICE and the Trump administration have brought to Minneapolis has made this tragedy sadly predictable,” he wrote.
Aoki said the resilience and determination Frey showed after Goode’s death stemmed from the “political knowledge and people’s approach” he honed over the years. He believes the mayor’s passionate declarations to federal officials reflect frustrations that have built up during weeks of ICE presence in the area.
“This will test all of his patience, resilience and political acumen,” Aoki said. “He’s a target of the federal government, and he can’t just retaliate. He’s going to have to figure out the best path to success under pressure from all sides. This will test his political skills in many ways.”
Jim Scheibel, St. Paul’s mayor from 1990 to 1994 and now assistant vice president of St. Paul’s Hamline University, said Frey’s handling of the situation has received positive reviews from around the country.
“He’s very visible and, speaking for myself, his controlled anger in this situation is important,” Shaibel said. “People are looking for someone to articulate what people in the Twin Cities feel.”
Shaibel said he felt Frey’s emotions were real and not theatrical.
“What he’s talking about really comes from his heart and his head,” he said. “Hubert Humphrey would be extremely proud of the kind of leadership that Mayor Frey is currently showing.”
Frey’s path to mayor
A native of Northern Virginia and the son of a professional modern ballet dancer, Frey attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg on a track scholarship, earned a degree in government, and landed a contract with a shoe company that allowed him to run professionally. While attending Villanova Law School in Philadelphia, he ran as many as 120 miles a week and graduated with honors.
According to his biography, Frey developed a love for Minneapolis while running the Twin Cities Marathon and moved there to work as an employment and civil rights attorney. He worked in community organizing and was named the city’s first annual recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for his work on behalf of marriage equality, housing, and worker nondiscrimination rights.
In 2013, he ran for Minneapolis City Council and was elected to represent the city’s 3rd Ward. Five years later, he became the city’s second-ever Jewish mayor and second-youngest mayor, elected on a platform that included restoring police-community relations amid simmering local discontent following two police-involved murders.
Two years later, George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and the issue of police-community relations would explode with global repercussions. Chauvin knelt next to Floyd for more than nine minutes. The incident, captured on video, brought tensions in the country over police brutality to a boil and sparked months of demonstrations across the country.
Mr. Frey’s handling of the crisis drew both praise and disapproval, including calls for firing and prosecution of the offices involved. Shortly after Mr. Floyd’s killing, as a building in Minneapolis was set on fire during protests, President Donald Trump, then in his first term, criticized Mr. Frey’s “total lack of leadership” on social media and threatened to deploy the National Guard.
When a reporter mentioned Trump’s remarks to Frey, the mayor responded that Trump knew nothing about the city’s toughness.
“Weakness is an unwillingness to take responsibility for one’s actions,” he says. “It’s a weakness to point fingers at others in times of crisis… Are these difficult times? Yes, but we should be confident that we will get through this.”
In December, as federal immigration authorities ramped up their presence in the Twin Cities area and President Trump denigrated Somali immigrants as “trash,” Frey defended the community, saying Minneapolis was “proud” to host the nation’s largest Somali community.
“They are our neighbors, our friends, our family, and they are welcome in our city,” he said. “No matter what Donald Trump does, that will never change.”
Recent crisis could test city agreements
Muhammad Abdul-Ahad, executive director of Touch Outreach, a Minneapolis violence prevention nonprofit, said Good’s shooting occurred at a time when communities and police are showing signs of rebuilding trust after the death of George Floyd.
Abdul-Ahad said he hopes ICE’s presence doesn’t derail the progress made, but some residents wonder why Minneapolis police aren’t taking a stronger stance against ICE. He hopes the mayor and police chief have a strategy in place for the large protests scheduled for this weekend.
“We don’t want to see an ‘us versus them’ picture,” he said. “We have been overworked since Mr. Floyd, and times like these require us all to come together and take action for our communities, rather than giving in to the blank stares and disbelief.”
Mayor Abdul Ahad said, “I will have to not only say, but I will have to show that I stand with the people.”
Augsburg University’s Aoki said that although Frey has been criticized by some, his stance on standing up to the Trump administration on behalf of the community in the wake of Goode’s shooting has earned him widespread support.
“He understands the division between the council and the city, and he knows exactly where he stands,” Aoki said. “At the beginning of his first term, he was trying to appeal to everyone and it didn’t work. Now he knows how to appeal to moderates and win over a few left-leaning members of Congress to get what he needs done.”
Former City Council member Goodman said that while Frey is learning how to negotiate with a state legislature that is “pretty purple,” Frey’s struggles in the city, which is considered very progressive in most other cities, show that “some of his detractors clearly don’t view him as progressive enough.”
She believes the mayor still considers the issue of police reform an unfinished business.
“The city is making progress and he’s very committed to it,” Goodman said. “He is committed to community-based policing with many alternative responses, rather than the old practices that facilitated the murder of George Floyd.”
Aoki said it “must mean something” that Frey survived the fallout from the issue and was reelected twice.
“I think (Floyd) made us better able to handle the crisis this time around,” he said. “It doesn’t make it any easier, but how can you not rely on that experience, for better or for worse?”
Abdul-Ahad wants Frey to be recognized for leading Minneapolis through a period of historic upheaval, but he says that must be earned through action, not just words.
“He’s been through a lot and so are we,” Abdul-Ahad said. “But as mayor, it’s his job to stand up and hold the city accountable. He’s been ridiculed many times over the past five years, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to go through that again…. He’s been humiliated. But he keeps coming back.”
