Agitators turn on Tim Walz and storm the Minnesota Capitol with chants outside governor’s office
28 January 2026 – 07:54AM
Agitators have stormed Minnesota’s Capitol Building as tensions intensify over federal immigration operations in the state. On Tuesday, protesters entered Minnesota’s Capitol Building and chanted “ICE out now” and “Do your job”, only feet away from Governor Tim Walz’s office. Before the protest, agitators planned to peacefully march to Walz’s office as they continued to chant slogans such as “No one is illegal… power to the people”. Protesters at the march were seen holding signs of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis residents recently killed by federal law enforcement agents.
White House accuses Tim Walz and Jacob Frey of inciting chaos as DOJ opens federal civil rights investigation
DOJ probes church storming as protests escalate in Minnesota
Senior Justice Department advisor Alina Habba joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss how the DOJ will use civil-rights statutes to prosecute those who intimidate worshipers, attack officers or fund violent protests amid Minnesota unrest.
The White House slammed a mob of anti-ICE agitators who reportedly stormed into a Twin Cities church Sunday, accusing local left-wing leaders — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — of inciting the chaos.
“There is no low these radical leftists won’t stoop to,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital Monday morning. “Jacob Frey and Tim Walz have whipped these rioters into a frenzy and turned them loose to wreak havoc on Minneapolis.”
“Frey and Walz should be ashamed for inciting such chaos, but the Trump Administration will continue enforcing the law,” she added.
Jackson was reacting to a mob comprised of dozens of agitators allegedly storming into the Cities Church sanctuary in St. Paul on Sunday midway through church services, throwing worship into chaos, Fox Digital previously reported. Protesters claimed the pastor was a local ICE official.
Minnesota has been rocked by a massive fraud scandal stretching back to the pandemic that prosecutors speculate could total billions of dollars. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Department of Justice officials vowed Sunday to open an investigation into the disruption, specifically probing for federal civil rights violations “by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshipers,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi added in a statement Sunday that “attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law.”
Video footage of the church protests spreading on social media does not show local police on the scene deterring the chaos.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Minneapolis Police Department Monday for comment on the matter, and was redirected to the St. Paul Police Department as the church is located within that department’s jurisdiction. Fox Digital reached out to the St. Paul police department Monday morning and has yet to receive a reply.
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Community members confront federal agents after an immigration raid that resulted in detentions and followed the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Jan. 13, 2026. (Tim Evans/Reuters)
Chaos has broken out in Minneapolis in recent weeks as agitators take to the streets to protest federal law enforcement officials. Federal officers converged on the state in early January as a sweeping fraud case came to light, which has led to dozens of arrests, mostly including members of Minneapolis’ large Somali population.
Protests and criticisms against ICE heightened Jan. 7, when a federal officer fatally shot protester Renee Good. Federal officials say Good used her car as a weapon against the agent, arguing he acted in self-defense when he fired his weapon.
Democrats and administration officials have called the shooting a “murder” as they speak out against the administration’s deportation efforts of illegal immigrants.
Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to reporters after he announced that he would not seek reelection, at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, Jan. 5, 2026. (Reuters/Tim Evans)
Frey rejected the Trump administration’s characterization of the immigration crackdown in Minnesota during a Sunday appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” claiming the surge of federal agents has made residents feel targeted rather than protected.
“This is not about safety. What this is about is coming into our city by the thousands and terrorizing people simply because they’re Latino or Somali,” Frey said. “People in Minneapolis are speaking up. They’re speaking up peacefully. They’re standing up for their neighbors. And this is not just about resisting Trump. This is about loving and caring for the people that call this city home. And it’s been inspiring.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the mayor’s office and governor’s office for comment Monday morning regarding the White House’s statement regarding the church disruption but did not immediately receive replies.
MINNEAPOLIS POSTS ANTI-ICE VIDEO PROMOTING ‘PEACEFUL PROTEST’ AND UNITY
The mob converging on a church comes as the Department of Homeland Security has warned that violence targeting ICE personnel has spiked in recent months. In a late November Homeland Security release, the agency said it logged 238 assaults on ICE law enforcement officers from Jan. 21, 2025, through Nov. 21, 2025, compared with 19 assaults during the same span in 2024 — a 1,153% increase.
A firework explodes near fencing outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building during protests, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Jen Golbeck/The Associated Press )
Fallout from Minnesota’s sprawling fraud scandal bled into the state’s political turmoil earlier in January, when Walz announced he would not seek re-election — a decision that came amid intensifying scrutiny of oversight failures during his tenure. Walz, who has served as governor since 2019, acknowledged the wrongdoing occurred on his watch and said state systems failed to catch it sooner, while arguing Republicans were inflating and “sensationalizing”
Frey, when asked about the scandal earlier in January, said “everybody could have done more” to stop the fraud, but cautioned against blaming broader communities for the alleged crimes of individuals — a point he made while pushing back on rhetoric that has focused on the Somali American community.
MINNESOTA NATIONAL GUARD PLACED ON STANDBY TO SUPPORT LAW ENFORCEMENT AS PROTESTS TURN VIOLENT
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pinned blame on Democrats and their rhetoric for heightened threats against federal immigration law enforcement officers.
“The Democrat Party has demeaned these individuals,” Leavitt said Thursday of federal immigration officers. “They’ve even referred to them as ‘Nazis’ and as ‘the Gestapo.’ And that is absolutely leading to the violence we’re seeing in the streets.
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“If you look at some of the images out of Minneapolis last night, look at this vehicle, look at what it says,” Leavitt added. “It says, ‘F ICE.’ You have these individuals who are putting their middle finger, proudly so, at the camera, another ICE individual, a vehicle that was vandalized last night by these left-wing agitators.”
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this article.
Newly Released Records Detail Chaos During Fatal ICE Shooting in Minneapolis
Reports from the city’s police and fire departments show that Renee Good, who was killed by an ICE agent last week, was found with two gunshot wounds to her chest and one to her forearm.
Mitch SmithNicholas Bogel-BurroughsReis Thebault and Pooja Salhotra
Here’s the latest.
Newly released records from the Minneapolis police and fire departments detailed the chaotic moments that unfolded after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good, who was found in her vehicle with two gunshot wounds to her chest and another to her forearm.
The responders found Ms. Good unresponsive inside her Honda S.U.V. on Jan. 7, and after they removed her from the vehicle, she was not breathing and had an irregular pulse, according to one of the reports. She also had a possible gunshot wound to the left side of her head. By the time the workers took her out of her vehicle, she had no pulse, and they performed CPR on her as she was rushed to a hospital, the report said.
The details, revealed in incident reports from the Minneapolis police and fire departments and 911 call logs obtained by The New York Times, sketched out the shock and fear of bystanders who frantically called for help after the agent, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opened fire. One of the 911 calls came from a man who appeared to be requesting assistance on behalf of homeland security officers on the scene.
The federal government has defended the ICE agent who shot Ms. Good, saying he acted in self-defense, a narrative state and local officials have disputed repeatedly. The shooting had set off over a week of intense protests in the city, prompting Gov. Tim Walz to plead for peaceful demonstrations. At the same time, Mr. Walz and local officials called for the federal government to end its immigration crackdown in the city.
On Wednesday evening, a separate shooting by a federal agent touched off more clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers. In response, President Trump said Thursday that he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows him to use the military to quash an insurrection or invasion.
Ms. Good has been labeled a domestic terrorist by Trump aides, while Stephen Miller, a top White House official, on Thursday described the protests as an “insurgency.” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act were a warning to Democrats.
Here’s what we’re covering:
- Chaotic aftermath: The newly released records show Minneapolis police officers trying to manage a volatile scene as observers and protesters confronted federal agents. Local officers called for crowd control, and recognized the urgent need to evacuate federal agents from the area. Read more ›
- Agents’ authority: When a federal agent ordered Ms. Good to get out of her Honda Pilot, was she legally obligated to comply? Experts said the answer is not so simple. While Ms. Good was compelled to follow a lawful order, it is not clear whether the immigration agents on the scene were acting within their authority. Read more ›
- Legal action: Lawyers representing the family of Ms. Good, a 37-year-old poet, said on Thursday that they anticipate taking legal action against the federal government and have asked officials to preserve all possible evidence. They earlier announced they would investigate Ms. Good’s killing and described her as a mother of three and a person of faith. Read more ›
Francesca Regalado contributed reporting.Show more
Emergency call transcripts record a crisis unfolding in real time.
Renee Good was shot last week amid a thicket of cellphones that recorded her killing and afforded instant communication for witnesses.
Records of police and emergency operators released late Thursday contain fragmentary, confused and profane reports from the scene in south Minneapolis and the efforts of the city police to contend with a crisis not of their making. The documents — about 60 pages of 911 call transcripts and police and fire department incident reports — sketch the visceral shock of bystanders, reduced to dry transcripts and terse entries in the shorthand of the police scanner.
