White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday, following President Donald Trump’s phone call with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), that Trump wants the “resistance and chaos” in Minnesota to end immediately.
Before Leavitt laid out the president’s demand and his four-point plan to return to “law and order” in Minnesota during Monday’s White House press briefing, she said that Democrat leaders in the state, “with sanctuary city policies, have actively defied federal immigration law and the will of the people.”
“As a result of that… defiance, two Minnesotans have now tragically lost their lives on the streets of Tim Walz’s state,” she added, referring to Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“It is President Trump’s hope and wish and demand for the resistance and chaos to end today,” she said. “That’s why President Trump spoke with Governor Walz directly this morning, and he has outlined a clear and simple path to restoring law and order in Minnesota.”
“Number one, Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, and all Democrat leaders should turn over all criminal illegal aliens currently incarcerated in their prisons and jails to federal authorities, along with any illegal aliens with active warrants or known criminal histories, for immediate deportation,” she added.
Secondly, she noted Trump’s insistence that local authorities turn over to federal authorities all illegal aliens they arrest. Third, she emphasized that local police must coordinate with federal authorities in bringing into custody “illegal aliens who are wanted for crimes, especially violent crimes.”
Leavitt said that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would not be needed to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota if Walz and Frey adopt “these common sense cooperative measures that I will add, have already been implemented in nearly every single other state across the country.”
“ICE and local law enforcement can peacefully work together, as they are effectively doing in so many other states and jurisdictions,” she added.
On top of this, Trump is calling for Congress to pass legislation to put an end to sanctuary cities.
“American cities should be safe sanctuaries for law-abiding citizens only, not for dangerous illegal alien criminals who broke our nation’s laws and do not belong here,” she said.
The four pillars Leavitt laid out are the same as those Trump outlined in a Sunday night Truth Social post.
“We hope Governor Walz will do the right thing and continue to work with President Trump to keep the American people safe, following their call this morning,” she said.
“Americans overwhelmingly want exactly what President Trump is delivering: strong borders and strict immigration enforcement against the worst illegal aliens, of which there are still hundreds of thousands to deport from the interior of our country,” the press secretary added.
Trump announced that Walz called him seeking to “work together” ahead of the briefing:
Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have “touched” and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
According to the Daily Mail, Walz’s office claimed Trump “agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”
