President Donald Trump’s attorney general and Homeland Security secretary are tasked with compiling a list of sanctuary states, cities and jurisdictions for punishment — and Minneapolis could be among them.
Trump signed an executive order Monday evening to strip federal funding from municipalities not complying with his illegal immigration orders. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition to explain his stance as the leader of a sanctuary city and how he’ll respond to the threat.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey answers questions from the press during a press conference on Jan. 6, 2025.
Ben Hovland | MPR News
The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player button above.
What might this executive order mean for Minneapolis?
The term sanctuary city is very amorphous, and that’s part of the problem in Trump’s use of it. In Minneapolis, we do not enforce federal immigration law because that’s not our job. We have a separation ordinance in our city that says that our police and our public officials will not collect information as to whether an individual is documented or not. And because we don’t collect any information, our response when Trump or others come asking is very simple: we don’t have any.
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There are so many problems with what Donald Trump is trying to do. The first is that it violates state law in that this is not one of the enumerated powers that police in local jurisdictions have, and you can’t just deputize them with it. The second is that it violates our separation ordinance at the city. The third is, even if it didn’t violate those laws, I, as the mayor, have the authority to determine what crimes and actions to prioritize, and I want the limited number of police officers that we have to focus on public safety.
There are millions of federal dollars at stake here, evidently. So why do you think it’s important to stay a sanctuary city?
While Donald Trump has tried to deprive us of federal dollars if we don’t work consistently with ICE, we just won a court case on this exact topic. So he may say that he can deprive us of those federal dollars. A judge would say otherwise. So we’re not just standing up for our neighbors with words, we’re standing up with court actions and the law, and I strongly believe that the law is on our side here.
How do you compare Monday’s executive order to similar ones struck down in California last week?
I think there are multiple parts to the executive order. The first is that Trump is going to identify what he defines as sanctuary cities. That’s fine. Maybe we’re on there. Maybe we’re not on there. The second thing is that, yes, he is going to insist that local jurisdictions like Minneapolis work directly with ICE on immigration law. I’m just telling you we’re not doing it. That is not in line with our values in Minneapolis. And again, we have important work to do around safety.
I’ll ask this question: what is deemed to be more of a safety threat, serial killer, a murderer, someone who’s repeatedly conducted a bunch of carjackings, or a family man who dropped their kids off at daycare and then went in to do a long day at work. You know, I think the first is far more dangerous, and I want our police officers focused on the murderers.
Another executive order gives officers accused of wrongdoing legal resources and seeks to reverse consent decrees. Are you worried the Trump administration will undo Minneapolis’ recent police reform?
Regardless of what Donald Trump does, we have negotiated a consent decree with the former Department of Justice, and we’re going to move forward with it anyway. We have an independent evaluator. We have the monitor that is ready to evaluate in a neutral, unbiased fashion whether or not we are complying, and we’re going to get the job done, period.
