Bondi Touts New ICE Protester Arrests During Minnesota Visit (1)

US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced from Minnesota 16 additional arrests in connection with clashes between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state.

Bondi said Wednesday in a series of posts on X that she is “on the ground in Minneapolis today,” and shared the names and some photos of individuals she said face charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees. Some in custody are shown with their feet restrained at the ankles while standing next to federal officers, who are photographed with their backs to the camera.

“We will NOT tolerate lawlessness in Minnesota,” Bondi wrote. “Nothing will stop us from continuing to make arrests and enforce the law.” She noted that additional arrests are expected.

Bondi highlighted her latest trip to Minneapolis and arrests there on social media as President Donald Trump has signaled a possible deescalation between his administration and anti-ICE protesters. US Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and some Border Patrol agents have departed while the White House has dispatched border czar Tom Homan to report directly to Trump on the situation.

Bondi also posted a photo of herself posing in Minnesota with officials including Homan and Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The Justice Department has previously attempted to bring charges against anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis, including those involved in a demonstration at a St. Paul church service, though some federal judges have declined to sign off on arrest warrants. Still, Bondi and other administration officials have stood by their use of federal law enforcement in a state that they claim local and state leaders have failed to uphold the rule of law.

In a Jan. 24 letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Bondi accused him and others in the state of ignoring “federal immigration law by enacting sanctuary laws and policies.” She called on his office to “restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota.”

To do so, Bondi requested that Walz’s office provide Minnesota records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs, including food stamp data, and grant DOJ’s Civil Rights Division access to “voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.” She also urged Walz to “reach an agreement with ICE that allows them to remove illegal aliens in custody of Minnesota’s prisons and jails and avoids pushing these interactions into your streets.”

Walz, who has called on President Donald Trump to remove federal agents from the state, accused Bondi of including “falsehoods” in the letter.

“We’re not going to do your job for you, we have other things we need to do,” Walz said Sunday.

Clashes between protesters and ICE escalated after federal agents fatally shot US citizens Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and said active duty troops are ready to assist in the enforcement crackdown in Minnesota.