JD Vance defends killing of anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis

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JD Vance defended the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics on Thursday, one day after a federal agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The US vice-president accused “leftwing radicals” and the “corporate media” of inflaming tensions over the shootingand defended the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot the woman.

“This was an attack on federal law enforcement. This was an attack on law and order,” Vance said. “This was an attack on the American people.”

“That woman was there to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation,” he added in a fiery exchange with reporters at the White House. “The president stands with ICE, I stand with ICE, we stand with all of our law enforcement officers.”

The shooting in Minneapolis has sparked protests across the country and reignited tensions between the White House and Democratic leaders who contend the woman was unlawfully killed by a reckless officer.

Videos that appeared to show the shooting went viral on social media and raised fresh questions about the administration’s law enforcement tactics as President Donald Trump presses ahead with his crackdown on illegal immigration across the US.

“Looking at the video, there seemed no justification for what these agents did,” said Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat. “There needs to be a full investigation at the federal level, though I have little faith in the FBI in doing a fair investigation.”

The FBI has taken over the investigation of the shooting despite protests from Minnesota state officials who want to be involved in the probe.

“What are you afraid of?” Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s state attorney-general, told CNN on Thursday. “What are you afraid of an independent investigation for?”

The White House has insisted the unnamed masked ICE agent was acting in self-defence when he shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in her car in Minneapolis on Wednesday. The woman had been protesting ICE raids in the city.

Later on Thursday, police in Portland, Oregon, said two people had been shot in the afternoon in the east of the city by federal agents. Police said the two people were transported to hospital but their conditions were unknown.

The FBI’s Portland branch said on X they had an active investigation into the shooting, which they said involved a Customs and Border Patrol agent.

The Department of Homeland Security said the officers were “conducting a targeted vehicle stop” involving a “Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with . . . [a] prostitution ring and involved in a recent shooting in Portland”.

“The driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents,” the agency added.

Earlier in the day, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem and other top administration officials described the woman shot in Minneapolis — identified by local authorities as Renee Nicole Good — as a “domestic terrorist”, without providing evidence.

Noem insisted ICE would press ahead with its tactics in Minneapolis and in cities across the US.

“We are warning anyone, if you think you can harm an individual, a citizen of the United States or a law enforcement officer, we will find you and bring you to justice,” Noem said in New York. “If you lay a finger on one of our officers, we will catch you, we will prosecute you and you will feel the full extent of the law.”

In social media videos that appeared to show the events, a Honda SUV blocked traffic on a residential street before several masked law enforcement officers approached the car. The driver reversed the car and then began to drive forward. One officer fired several shots at the driver at close range.

Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, called the shooting a “brazen use of force” on Thursday as he implored the White House to remove federal officers from his state.

“Let us breathe. Look, we’re exhausted. We’re exhausted as Minnesotans. We’re exhausted as Americans. And this relentless assault on Minnesota for whatever reason, is just cruel,” Walz said. “Now it has reached cruelness. So please just give us a break. And if it’s me, you’re already getting what you want.”

Walz on Monday announced he was suspending his re-election bid amid a federal investigation into allegations of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s state welfare programmes.

Vance on Thursday said the Trump administration was creating a new assistant attorney-general position to investigate fraud in Minnesota and other states.