Trump demands Gov Walz cooperate on immigration enforcement operations

President Donald Trump spoke directly with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and demanded Monday that state and local law enforcement “work together peacefully” with federal authorities.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the conversation during her Monday press briefing, saying Trump wanted to “let cops be cops.” She condemned Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for encouraging anti-ICE agitators, saying it led to the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, who were killed by law enforcement this month.

“It is President Trump’s hope, wish and demand that the resistance and chaos end today. That is why President Trump spoke directly with Governor Walz this morning, and he laid out a clear and simple path to restoring law and order to Minnesota,” Leavitt said.

His first demand is that Walz, Frey and Democratic leaders in the rest of the state turn over all currently incarcerated illegal aliens, in addition to any illegal aliens with “active warrants or known criminal histories.”

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Gov. Tim Walz had a “productive” phone call with President Donald Trump on Monday as tensions flare in Minnesota, the president shared on Truth Social. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump also demanded that state and local law enforcement be allowed to turn over arrested illegal aliens. Finally, Trump calls on local law enforcement to help apprehend and detain illegal aliens wanted for crimes.

“If Governor Walz and Mayor Frey implement these common-sense cooperative measures…Customs and Border Patrol will no longer be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota,” Leavitt said. “ICE and local law enforcement can work together peacefully, as they effectively do in many other states.”

“We want to let cops be cops,” she said.

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President Donald Trump on Monday demanded an end to sanctuary cities. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

The move comes as Trump also calls on Congress to pass legislation banning sanctuary cities, where law enforcement is barred from working with federal authorities.

Walz acknowledged his call with Trump in a statement on social media, but it does not appear the two men reached an agreement.

“I spoke to the President earlier. We had a productive conversation and I explained to him that his team did not have the correct facts regarding Minnesota,” Walz wrote.

A protester, left, and a federal law enforcement officer argue outside a home Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

He shared an op-ed he wrote Monday for the Wall Street Journal, in which he argues that the federal presence in Minnesota is no longer about immigration, but rather “a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state.”

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“Administration Claims Minnesota Prisons Release ‘The Worst of the Worst.’ In fact, the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors all federal and local inmates by notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a person in its custody is not a U.S. citizen,” Walz wrote. “There is not a single documented case of the Department releasing a person from a state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody.”