US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says hundreds more federal agents are heading to Minneapolis, brushing aside demands by the city's Democratic leaders to leave after an immigration officer fatally shot a female protester.
In multiple television interviews, Ms Noem defended the actions of the officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, whose death has sparked renewed protests nationwide against US President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown.
Ms Noem reiterated her claim that Ms Good's actions in the Midwestern city on Wednesday amounted to "domestic terrorism," and that the agent acted in self-defence when he fatally shot Ms Good in her car.
Prominent Democratic officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have strongly disputed this narrative, saying viral footage from the scene shows Ms Good's vehicle turning away from the agent and posing no threat to his life.
Ms Noem, when pressed repeatedly by CNN about how she could make such definitive statements while an investigation into the incident had just begun, insisted she and the administration were in the right.
"Why are we arguing with a president who's working to keep people safe?" she said.
Speaking separately to the conservative Fox News network, Ms Noem said hundreds more officers would arrive Sunday and Monday, local time, to allow immigration agents "that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely".
If protesters "conduct violent activities against law enforcement, if they impede our operations, that's a crime, and we will hold them accountable to those consequences," Ms Noem told Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News.
'Extremely politicised'
Meanwhile, confrontations between federal agents and protesters continued on Sunday in Minneapolis, with officers seen using pepper spray against people holding signs outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the city.
Ms Noem accused Democrats of encouraging violence against immigration officers.
"These locals, if you look at what Governor Walz has said, if you look at what Mayor Frey has said, they've extremely politicised and inappropriately talked about the situation on the ground in their city," she told CNN's State of the Union.
"They've inflamed the public. They've encouraged the kind of destruction and violence that we've seen in Minneapolis the last several days."
Since Wednesday's shooting, thousands of people have demonstrated, largely peacefully, in several cities across the country including Minneapolis, where 29 people were detained and then released on Friday, according to police.
The protesters have demanded a full investigation into the circumstances of the deadly encounter.
Democratic officials are particularly critical of the fact that local authorities have been excluded from the investigation, which is being conducted by the FBI.
"It should be a neutral, unbiased investigation where you get the facts," Mayor Frey told CNN.
He also described activists' actions to disrupt immigration enforcement operations, such as the one in which Good was involved, as legitimate.
"You need to enforce laws, of course, but there's also a requirement that you carry out laws and carry out enforcement in a constitutional way," Mayor Frey said.
"We've got pregnant women getting dragged through the street. We've got high schoolers just getting — American citizens, by the way — getting taken away."
On Sunday, agents were carrying out Mr Trump's immigration crackdown and were seen detaining people in residential areas. People were also seen laying flowers at makeshift memorials honouring Ms Good.
The federal security operation in Minneapolis occurred amid a highly politicised fraud investigation in Minnesota.
It came after a 23-year-old MAGA content creator alleged, with little evidence, to have uncovered rampant fraud in Somali-run daycare centres — claims that were amplified by senior administration officials.
The allegations, which date back to 2020, involve federally funded non-profit childcare and social service providers, with prosecutors estimating the fraud could reach $US9 billion ($13 billion) — a figure state officials reject as exaggerated.
A 2021 federal investigation into a series of schemes resulted in charges against 92 people with 62 convicted — many of them Somali, according to CBS News.
Mr Trump has since sought to portray Minnesota and its Somali population as a hotspot for fraud.
ABC/AFP
