Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, has claimed that local and state police in Minneapolis have been ordered to “stand down and surrender” amid ongoing anti-ICE protests. Miller made the assertion in a social media post on Sunday night, stating that “only federal officers are upholding the law.”
The Minneapolis Police Department has denied the claim. Sergeant Garrett Parten, a public information officer, said in a statement: “The statement is false.” Miller’s comments came in response to a post by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, who alleged that “local cops have gone AWOL” in the city.
Protests erupted following the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month. Demonstrators stormed Cities Church in St Paul on Sunday, demanding that federal immigration forces leave the state, where over 3,000 federal agents have been deployed.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticised the federal presence, likening it to an “occupying force” and emphasising that local police are working to maintain peace. “We are doing the work to keep people safe in our city, and specifically, it is our local police officers,” Frey said on CBS News’ Face the Nation.
President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to restore order, while Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has placed the National Guard on standby. Walz urged calm and stated that the state has sufficient resources to maintain public safety.
