Tim Walz and Jacob Frey have spent weeks demonizing federal law enforcement. Now their city is reaping what they've sown.

A federal agent will permanently lose his finger after a rioter bit it off during the chaos engulfing Minneapolis this weekend.

Let that sentence sink in. An American law enforcement officer, doing his job enforcing federal immigration law, had part of his finger bitten off by a protester. This is where we are.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin shared the graphic news on social media Saturday, along with photos of the severed finger and two suspects in custody.

"In Minneapolis, these rioters attacked our law enforcement officer and one of them bit off our HSI officer's finger. He will lose his finger."

This isn't protest. This is savagery. And it's the direct, predictable result of weeks of inflammatory rhetoric from Minnesota's Democratic leadership.

How We Got Here

Three weeks ago, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good after she used her vehicle to obstruct a federal immigration operation and then put that vehicle in motion with agents surrounding her. Ross, a ten-year veteran who had been dragged by a vehicle just months earlier, acted in self-defense.

Rather than wait for an investigation, Minnesota's Democratic establishment immediately pronounced the shooting a murder. Governor Tim Walz proclaimed "Renee Good Day." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to "get the fuck out of Minneapolis." Attorney General Keith Ellison launched investigations and implied charges might follow.

The message was clear: federal agents are the enemy. Obstruction is heroism. Resistance is justified.

The mob heard them.

Saturday's Violence

On Saturday, the situation escalated further. Federal agents shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old who inserted himself into a law enforcement situation while armed with a concealed handgun and multiple magazines of ammunition.

According to federal officials, Pretti physically intervened when agents were attempting to control a scene, embracing a woman who had been pushed by officers. He was pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground by multiple agents, and shot when officers discovered he was armed.

Within minutes, approximately 200 rioters arrived at the scene.

"About 200 rioters arrived at the scene and began to obstruct and assault law enforcement. We will not allow violence against our law enforcement officers."

What followed was a scene of mob violence. Objects were thrown at officers. Federal agents were physically attacked. And one HSI officer had his finger bitten off by a protester—an injury so severe it cannot be repaired.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the person who bit off the agent's finger has been arrested and will face federal charges.

The Democratic Response

You might expect that a federal officer being maimed by a rioter would prompt some reflection from Minnesota's Democratic leaders. You would be wrong.

Governor Walz responded to Saturday's events by asking the public: "Which side do you want to be on? The side of an all-powerful federal government that could kill, injure, menace and kidnap its citizens off the streets, or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such government?"

That's the Governor of Minnesota describing federal law enforcement as kidnappers and murderers—after one of his constituents bit off an agent's finger.

Senator Amy Klobuchar demanded that ICE "get out of our state NOW." Senator Tina Smith called the agents "reckless, violent and dangerous." Minneapolis Mayor Frey is seeking a restraining order to halt federal immigration enforcement entirely.

Not one prominent Minnesota Democrat has condemned the violence against federal officers. Not one has called for calm. Not one has acknowledged that a law enforcement officer was permanently maimed by their constituents.

Instead, they've doubled down. The mob is righteous. The agents are villains. And if officers get their fingers bitten off in the process, that's apparently acceptable.

The Broader Pattern

Minneapolis is what happens when Democratic leaders spend years telling their constituents that law enforcement is illegitimate.

It happened with police after George Floyd. "Defund the police" became mainstream Democratic rhetoric. Minneapolis itself pledged to dismantle its police department. Officers left in droves. Crime soared.

Now it's happening with federal immigration enforcement. The same playbook: demonize the officers, lionize the resisters, and express shock when violence follows.

According to DHS data released earlier this month, assaults on ICE officers have increased by more than 1,300% since President Trump took office, with a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks and an 8,000% increase in death threats. The department explicitly blamed "radical rhetoric by sanctuary politicians" for creating "an environment that encourages rampant assaults on law enforcement."

Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense and Minnesota native, posted his support for ICE officers: "Thank God for the patriots of ICE—we have your back 100%. Shame on the leadership of Minnesota—and the lunatics in the street."

He's right about the lunatics. But the lunatics didn't appear out of nowhere. They were cultivated by years of anti-law enforcement rhetoric from the very leaders now pretending to be shocked by the violence.

What Comes Next

Vice President JD Vance noted that when he visited Minneapolis this week, "what the ICE agents wanted more than anything was to work with local law enforcement so that situations on the ground didn't get out of hand."

Local officials refused. They've made cooperation with federal immigration enforcement politically toxic. They've instructed their police departments to stand down. They've turned Minneapolis into a sanctuary city where federal law is treated as optional.

The result is predictable: federal agents operating without local support, protesters who believe obstruction is virtuous, and escalating violence that culminates in an officer losing his finger to a human bite.

The Department of Justice is now taking action. Attorney General Bondi has directed DOJ components to defend ICE facilities and established a temporary ICE Protection Task Force. The memo makes clear that anyone who "aids, abets, or conspires" to commit crimes against ICE—including through "funding, coordination, or planning"—will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if order isn't restored. That would be an extraordinary step—but what's happening in Minneapolis is extraordinary. A major American city has effectively declared war on federal law enforcement, and its citizens are maiming agents in the streets.

The Bottom Line

A federal agent will go through life missing part of his finger because he tried to enforce immigration law in Minneapolis.

The person who bit it off has been arrested. But the politicians who created the conditions for this violence—who told their constituents that ICE agents are murderers and kidnappers, who refused to cooperate with federal law enforcement, who celebrated obstruction as resistance—will face no consequences.

Tim Walz will remain Governor. Jacob Frey will remain Mayor. Keith Ellison will remain Attorney General. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has issued detainer requests for more than 1,360 criminal illegal aliens in Minnesota's custody—requests that Walz and Frey continue to ignore, releasing nearly 470 back onto the streets since Trump took office.

Minneapolis is burning because its leaders lit the match. The only question now is whether the rest of America will learn from their example—or repeat it.