CHAOS: Minnesota ICE Official Warns of Unrest ‘Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen Before’
[Video below.] A senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Minnesota appealed Sunday for demonstrations in the Twin Cities to remain nonviolent after two recent fatal shootings involving federal agents in Minneapolis, unrest he said was unprecedented in his experience.
Sam Olson, the ICE field office director based in St. Paul, addressed the situation during an appearance on Fox News, urging protesters to respect boundaries while agents are working in the field. “When we’re out there, we have no problem with the public watching what we do, filming what we do, talking to us while we do it, but there is that line, though, when they start to impede and get in situations where, frankly, we don’t want them to be, we can’t have them to be, kind of in our workspace,” Olson said on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
He warned that tensions escalate once those limits are crossed. “That’s when we have issues,” he added.
Olson’s comments came shortly after a second deadly encounter involving a federal officer in Minnesota, intensifying scrutiny and sparking additional protests.
In the latest incident, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs intensive care unit nurse, leading Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to publicly back the agent’s actions as self-defense.
The shooting was the second fatal episode this month in the state involving federal law enforcement officers, adding to mounting anger and unrest.
Pretti’s parents spoke out Saturday following the shooting, saying they were “heartbroken but also very angry,” and accusing authorities of spreading “sickening lies” about what happened.
During his television interview, Olson described the shooting as “unfortunate.”
He emphasized the gravity of such incidents for law enforcement officers, saying, “No officer wakes up in the morning and hopes to have to use any type of force, let alone deadly force, and now this happened.”
Olson went on to blame heightened confrontations on the streets, adding, “Again, this happened because of kind of what we’re seeing around here with a lot of these agitators, these vigilantes kind of surrounding the officers on the street.”
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{Matzav.com}
