Vance Says He’ll Try to 'Turn Down the Chaos' in Minneapolis While Pressing Officials to Cooperate With ICE

TOLEDO, Ohio — Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday that during a planned visit to Minneapolis he will try to “turn down the chaos” and convey calm as tensions remain high following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a federal officer earlier this month.

Speaking at an event promoting the White House’s economic agenda, Vance reiterated President Donald Trump’s criticism that local Democratic leaders have obstructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and fostered an environment that encourages unruly protests.

“If you disagree … fine, make that argument. But make that argument at the ballot box. Write an op‑ed in the newspaper, argue about it on social media. Don’t go to the streets and start assaulting federal law enforcement officers because you disagree with the policies of our administration. It’s cowardly bulls---, and it’s got to stop,” Vance said.

The remarks came hours before Vance was scheduled to hold a roundtable and deliver a speech in Minneapolis, where a federal officer shot and killed 37‑year‑old Renee Nicole Good during a confrontation. Administration officials, including Trump and Vance, have suggested — without presenting conclusive evidence — that Good was connected to left‑wing protesters and posed a danger to officers as she attempted to drive away.

Addressing the packed floor of a shipping warehouse in Toledo, Vance said he planned to “talk with local officials about how we can turn down the chaos.” He urged city and state leaders to stop resisting federal immigration enforcement and to accept stronger border controls as a way to reduce unrest.

“If you look all across our country, what’s happened in Minneapolis is happening almost nowhere else,” Vance said. “Whether it’s in Texas or Tennessee, it’s in red states, it’s in blue cities — most people are cooperating with the simple principle that we ought to be able to enforce our immigration laws and remove illegal criminals from the United States.”

Trump acknowledged this week that federal agents sometimes make mistakes in enforcing immigration policy. “ICE is going to be too rough with somebody… They’re going to make some mistakes sometimes. It can happen. We feel terribly,” the president said at a White House briefing.

Responding to a question from NBC News, Vance agreed that mistakes occur in law enforcement but argued that better cooperation from local jurisdictions would reduce them. “My thought on that is, well, of course there have been mistakes made, because you’re always going to have mistakes made in law enforcement,” he said, adding that “99% of our police officers, probably more than that, are doing everything right.”

Democratic leaders including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have disputed the administration’s account of the ICE encounter with Good. They have also been drawn into a federal investigation into whether state officials conspired to impede immigration operations; the Justice Department has issued subpoenas to Walz, Frey and other officials, according to documents reviewed by NBC News and a person familiar with the inquiry.

Vance said one of his aims during the visit is to calm tensions and listen to community concerns. He also emphasized that ICE operations are critical, in his view, for identifying and removing sex offenders, and criticized Minneapolis officials for what he described as a lack of cooperation.

“So when I talk about lowering the temperature, those are the two things we want local authorities to do — help us find sex offenders and get them out of their community,” Vance said. “If you’ve got a neighbor who’s a sex offender and somebody wants to take that person away, I’m going to raise my hand and say, ‘Yes, please get that person away from my children.’ What is wrong with Minneapolis authorities?”

The visit is likely to put federal‑state tensions over immigration enforcement and public safety squarely in the spotlight as officials from both parties respond to the shooting and ongoing investigations.