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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, is “playing with fire” for refusing to use local police to enforce his administration’s hardline immigration crackdown.

The latest social media jab is a backpedal from the US President’s comments on Tuesday that he wanted to “de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis.

Frey fired back, saying in a post on X: “The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws.”

“I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad,” he added, referring to the Ecuadoran father of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, both of whom are being held in a Texas facility after being detained by federal agents in Minneapolis.

Saturday’s fatal shooting of Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was widely condemned across the political aisle despite initial efforts by White House officials to justify the killing.

In a bid to stem the backlash, Trump shuffled the leadership of immigration agents deployed in Minneapolis.

He replaced the confrontational Greg Bovino, famed for reveling in aggressive, televised immigration crackdowns, with the policy-focused “border czar” Tom Homan.

Another high-ranking official, Attorney General Pam Bondi, was in Minneapolis on Wednesday as she announced the arrests of 16 Minnesota “rioters” for allegedly assaulting federal law enforcement.

Court blocks detention of refugees

A US federal judge temporarily blocked the administration of President Donald Trump yesterday from detaining refugees in Minnesota awaiting permanent resident status and ordered the release of those in detention.

Trump has sent thousands of federal immigration agents to the Democratic state as part of a sweeping crackdown that has sparked outrage over two civilian deaths at the hands of officers.

Authorities launched a program this month to re-examine the legal status of the approximately 5,600 refugees in Minnesota who have not yet been given green cards.

In his order Wednesday, US District Judge John Tunheim said that the Trump administration could continue to enforce immigration laws and review refugees’ status, but that it must do so “without arresting and detaining refugees.”

“Refugees have a legal right to be in the United States, a right to work, a right to live peacefully – and importantly, a right not to be subjected to the terror of being arrested and detained without warrants or cause in their homes or on their way to religious services or to buy groceries,” Tunheim wrote.

“At its best, America serves as a haven of individual liberties in a world too often full of tyranny and cruelty. We abandon that ideal when we subject our neighbors to fear and chaos.”

The order drew a quick rebuke from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a powerful figure who leads Trump’s hardline immigration policy.

“The judicial sabotage of democracy is unending,” Miller wrote on X.

The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws. I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to MPLS & is from Ecuador. It’s similar to the policy your guy Rudy had in NYC. Everyone should feel safe calling 911. pic.twitter.com/4RKo3mmOW2

— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) January 28, 2026

Fallout from fatal shootings 

While the White House insists that it is targeting hardened criminals, the use of masked, heavily armed men to snatch people from streets, homes and workplaces has caused widespread shock.

That turned to fury this month after immigration agents shot dead two Minneapolis protesters at point-blank range in separate incidents – Pretti and Renee Good, both US citizens.

Top Trump aide Stephen Miller initially justified Pretti’s killing by branding him a “would-be assassin” – despite video evidence clearly showing the 37-year-old man posed no threat when he was shot in the back while pinned down on the ground.

Late Tuesday, Miller said the Customs and Border Patrol agents who killed Pretti “may not have been following that protocol.”

Meanwhile, US networks aired video reportedly showing Pretti in another violent scuffle with agents more than a week before his killing. The footage could not be immediately verified.

Clashes between protesters and Trump’s armed, masked federal immigration officers who are deployed to Democratic cities are increasingly common.