Mayor Jacob Frey’s impassioned and explicit directive telling ICE to “get out” of Minneapolis may have caught many Americans off guard, particularly those unfamiliar with him. However, for the residents of this Midwestern city, accustomed to his bold and progressive stance over the past eight years, his reaction was hardly surprising.
During a charged press conference, Frey condemned the narrative surrounding the incident. “They’re already trying to frame this as an act of self-defense,” he stated. “Having personally viewed the footage, I want to make it clear—that’s nonsense. To ICE, I say, get out of Minneapolis. You’re not welcome here.”
Frey’s comments followed a controversial incident where an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet, in Minneapolis. Federal authorities claimed the shooting was a defensive measure.
This tragic event has propelled both Minneapolis and Frey, recognized as one of the nation’s most liberal mayors, into the national conversation.
Frey hails from Arlington, Virginia, a prosperous suburb near Washington D.C., and is the son of professional ballet dancers.
Frey grew up in Arlington Virginia, a wealthy suburb of Washington DC, the son of a couple who were professional ballet dancers.
He graduated from Villanova University, a private Catholic research university in Pennsylvania, and went on to become a civil rights and employment discrimination lawyer, as well as a successful marathon runner.
He won a contract from a running shoe company and competed for Team USA at the Pan American Games.
After running the Twin Cities Marathon and liking the area, he moved to Minneapolis. In 2016 he married his wife Sarah, a lawyer for a solar energy company and they have two young daughters, welcoming the second in July last year.
Jacob Frey is in his third term as Mayor of Minneapolis
Jacob Frey with his wife Sarah and family pictured on his Facebook page
After arriving in Minneapolis, Frey served on the city council and was first elected mayor in 2017, standing for the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.
He was later slammed by conservatives for his handling of the 2020 George Floyd riots and his progressive policies, which have included having police look the other way on psychedelic drugs.
Despite, that he secured a third term in November, and his comments in the wake of the shooting were the latest in a string of attacks on ICE.
On Wednesday night, he launched another fiery, expletive-laden attack on the Trump administration on CNN, after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Good had ‘weaponized her vehicle’ and ‘attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.’
The mayor said: ‘That, and I’ll say it again, is bulls***, that is bulls***.
‘The way that they’ve been conducting themselves is also bulls*** and we need to be very clear-eyed about what is happening.’
He said the driver was attempting to make three-point turn ‘clearly not with any sort of intention to run someone over.’
He added: ‘You don’t need a legal degree to know that that doesn’t authorize a use of deadly force,” Frey added.
Jacob Frey and wife Sarah, a lawyer, married in 2016
Jacob Frey moved to Minneapolis after falling in love with the city when he ran a marathon there
In January last year, at a town hall with Minnesota congresswoman and ‘Squad’ leftist Ilhan Omar, Frey declared that Minneapolis would not cooperate with the Trump administration on their mass deportation program, making it a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants.
‘I want to speak to the undocumented. We love you, we care about you and the city of Minneapolis, we will stand up for you and we will do anything in our power to help,’ he said.
He added that the migrants are ‘not an alien in our city, you’re a neighbor’ and ‘our city officials will not be gathering information, showing who is and who is not documented.’
‘Our police officers will not be cooperating with federal immigration law. We enforce state and local laws in Minneapolis and we will do so to the best of our ability.’
He concluded: ‘But as for cooperation with ICE? The answer is no.’
Jacob Frey is an ally of Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar
Members of the FBI investigate the car in which a woman was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 07 January 2026
After his reelection In November he delivered part of his victory speech in Somali.
Minnesota has the biggest Somali community in America, with 25,000 in Minneapolis, a city of 430,000 people
The state is currently at the center of a storm after it was the scene of the biggest welfare fraud scandal of the pandemic era.
The vast majority of the 57 people so far convicted in the $250 million scan were members of the Somali community.
Frey has become a champion of the Somali community and beat out a Somali-American, a democratic socialist, in the mayoral race.
Frey has become a champion of the Somali community in Minneapolis
In his victory speech he said: ‘No matter what policies are introduced by President Donald Trump, Minneapolis stands with you, and we value what you bring to our city.’
Before the election he danced on stage with a Somali flag, and wearing a Somali T-shirt.
His decision to speak in Somali brought a reaction from conservative opponents.
Earlier, in 2019, he faced pushback from the police union after banning ‘warrior-style’ training for officers, on and off duty, saying it violated the ‘values at the very heart of community policing.’
That year, he engaged in his first high-profile feud with the White House.
President Donald Trump accused him of trying to sabotage a campaign event planned for Minneapolis by charging $530,000 for security.
Protesters clash with police after a driver of a vehicle was shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis
Jacob Frey has feuded with President Trump since 2019
Trump’s campaign accused Frey of ‘conjuring a phony and outlandish bill.’
At the time, Trump wrote on X: ‘Radical Left Dem Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, is doing everything possible to stifle Free Speech.’
Frey responded: ‘I don’t have time with a city of 430,000 people to be tweeting garbage out, so it’s kind of surprising when the president of the United States, a country with 327 million people, has the time to do this himself, so I don’t know where the guy gets the time.’
The mayor and his police chief barred off-duty members of the city’s police force from attending the rally.
