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Former President Joe Biden is speaking out against the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, saying that it “betrays our most basic values as Americans.”
During his 2024 re-election campaign, then-former President Donald Trump argued that Biden and his border czar, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, failed to secure the border, effectively allowing unprecedented illegal immigration into the U.S. that posed a national security threat. Trump had promised a mass crackdown and deportations of criminal illegal aliens.
Now, Biden is calling out the Trump administration’s actions after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
“We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights. We are not a nation that tramples the 4th Amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized,” Biden wrote in a statement posted on X.
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Former President Joe Biden slammed the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images; Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)
“Minnesotans have reminded us all what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this administration. Violence and terror have no place in the United States of America, especially when it’s our own government targeting American citizens,” he added.
The former president called on Americans to “stand up and speak out” against the conduct of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
“Now, justice requires full, fair, and transparent investigations into the deaths of the two Americans who lost their lives in the city they called home. Jill and I are sending strength to the families and communities who love Alex Pretti and Renee Good as we all mourn their senseless deaths,” Biden said.
Federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Both deaths sparked mass demonstrations and calls for federal immigration officers to be pulled out of the state.
A card with images of Renee Good and Alex Pretti lies among flowers and other mementos at a memorial in Minneapolis, Minn., on Jan. 27, 2026. (Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
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Harris, who served as Biden’s vice president, has also been a vocal critic of the immigration crackdown. She called the shooting of Good “shocking” and said that “the horrifying and painful video” of the incident showed “that the Trump administration’s explanation of this shooting is pure gaslighting.”
After Pretti was shot, Harris said she was “heartbroken for Alex, his family, Minneapolis and America.”
Minnesota leaders have criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, with Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “get the f— out” of his city after Good was shot and killed during an interaction with an ICE officer.
Agitators converge after the shooting of Alex Pretti. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
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On Monday, Trump announced that he would be sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota as Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, the face of his administration’s campaign to arrest and deport criminal illegal immigrants, would be leaving, signaling a possible shift in policy.
“I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” Trump said on Truth Social. In the same post, the president announced “a major investigation” into allegations of welfare fraud in Minnesota.
Flowers and cards lie at a makeshift memorial site, where a man identified as Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent trying to detain him, in Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 27, 2026. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
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Trump later said that he and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had a “very good call” despite their disagreements on the handling of immigration enforcement.
“I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all criminals that they have in their possession. The governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future,” Trump said in a separate Truth Social post. “He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!”
Trump added that both he and Walz share the goal of further reducing crime in Minnesota.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
