In an apparent attempt to dampen anger over federal immigration surges in Minnesota and elsewhere, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials released a sobering list of killers and child rapists from all over the world arrested during operations in the sanctuary state.
This list, complete with headshots and criminal biographies, was released to Fox News over the weekend, authorities telling the outlet they “are the type of people Democratic politicians and activists are referring to as their ‘neighbors’ as they attempt to interfere with ICE.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reposted an X entry by Fox News reporter Bill Melugin with the list of the “most egregious,” with the secretary writing, “This is why we have ICE Agents. May God Bless them for their thankless work to protect American communities from these sick people.”
All the perpetrators on the list have been convicted of crimes ranging from homicides to rape and sodomy of young teenage girls — yet reportedly were allowed to roam free in Minnesota.
“Regardless of staged political theatrics, ICE is going to continue to arrest the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in Minnesota and elsewhere,” ICE Director Todd M. Lyons told Fox. “Some of these criminal aliens have had final orders of removal for 30 years, but they’ve been free to terrorize Minnesotans.”
“ICE’s arrests prevent recidivism and make communities safer, but it feels like local politicians want to ignore that part and drum up discontent rather than protect their own constituents,” he added.
The list comes as Minneapolis, as well as other cities in the U.S., have been experiencing street protests following the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an immigration agent whom the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said acted in self-defense when she accelerated toward him in her SUV.
WATCH — Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Downplays, Mocks ICE Agent’s Injury:
With the release, immigration officials are also clearly trying to combat the persistent condemnation of ICE and President Trump by Democrat politicians like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Border Czar Tom Homan said Friday such overheated rhetoric since the shooting only “justifies” the violent actions that protestors “want to take against ICE.”
In her X post showing the list of criminals, Leavitt added, “Also, just take a minute to think about how deeply indoctrinated and deranged one must be to go out, in the middle of a work day, and protest AGAINST the law enforcement officers who are deporting monsters like this.”
DHS chimed in on Saturday with its own post on X, which showed an image an airliner accompanied by only a few words: “Lawbreakers going wheels up in Minneapolis.”
Devoted ICE critics, however, were not buying it, with one social media activist posting on X a video purported to be of an ICE agent interacting with a migrant mother and her child and stating, “This is what ICES [Sic} stands for.”
At least 18 criminals were highlighted on the ICE list, with the perpetrators in the U.S. illegally from countries that include Laos, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Burma, and Guatemala.
Only one of the featured criminals is from Mexico.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
