As a federal immigration enforcement surge continues in Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday called on Minnesotans to peacefully resist the administration of President Donald Trump and to record videos of immigration agents operating in the state.

“Help us establish a record of exactly what’s happening in our communities. You have an absolute right to peacefully film ICE agents as they conduct these activities,” Walz said in a five-minute speech. “So carry your phone with you at all times, and if you see these ICE agents in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution.”

The governor delivered remarks on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in an address carried on the web and local broadcasters just a little over a week after Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced her agency would be sending 2,000 federal agents to the Twin Cities to carry out a major enforcement operation. The full text can be found here.

Within days of that announcement, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good, who had confronted agents during an enforcement action in Minneapolis, leading to protests in the Twin Cities and across the U.S.

Walz: ‘Donald Trump wants this chaos’

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty called on Minnesota residents to submit evidence on the shooting last week after the U.S. Department of Justice said it would not work with the state on a joint probe into Good’s death — a move that reportedly prompted six federal prosecutors to resign.

Walz and other Democratic-Farmer-Labor Minnesota officials have asked for ICE and U.S. Border Patrol to cease their immigration crackdown in the state following the shooting, but there’s little sign that federal officials will relent. Noem on Sunday said she planned to send hundreds more agents to Minnesota.

With no sign of a wind-down, the governor repeated his call for nonviolent resistance to the president’s immigration crackdown.

“Donald Trump wants this chaos. He wants confusion, and yes, he wants more violence on our streets,” Walz said. “We cannot give him what he wants. We can’t. We must protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully.”

Minnesota has attracted significant attention from the Trump administration in recent months after long-standing issues with government fraud gained national media attention. Federal prosecutors have estimated Medicaid fraud alone may have reached billions of dollars in recent years.

Federal officials have moved to cut off day care funding to Minnesota and threatened to pause Medicaid funding unless the state demonstrates further actions to boost the integrity of its federally funded programs. State officials are attempting to appeal a $2 billion annual freeze sought by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz.

Amid that pressure and building scrutiny on his fraud record, Walz announced on Jan. 6 that he was suspending his campaign for an unprecedented third consecutive term as governor.

Most recent ICE surge

In that announcement, Walz said recent federal pressure was “a concerted effort to try and destroy the president’s opponents, to destroy the rule of law.” During his Wednesday speech, the governor said he believed Trump was seeking retribution against people “who dared to vote against him three times.” Minnesota hasn’t supported a Republican presidential candidate since 1972.

While ICE had been operating in the Twin Cities already — leading to clashes with anti immigration enforcement protesters in November — the most recent surge of Homeland Security activity came as administration officials said they became aware of significant government fraud by primarily Somali-run businesses against federally-funded programs administered by the state of Minnesota.

On Dec. 18, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who led investigations into many of the fraud schemes, said he believed 14 “high-risk” Minnesota Medicaid programs could have lost $9 billion since 2018 — half the money they received Walz has called that statement “defamation” and says the estimate isn’t backed by evidence.

Thompson is one of the prosecutors who resigned this week after the Trump Justice Department excluded Minnesota from the ICE shooting investigation. Walz, who last week said Thompson “would have been let go by any other administration” for his “speculating” about fraud, this week praised the prosecutor as a “principled public servant.”

‘Island of decency’

In his Wednesday speech, Walz said he believed that Minnesota’s conflict with the federal government is temporary.

“We will not have to live like this forever. Accountability is coming at the voting booth and in court,” Walz said. “We will reclaim our communities from Donald Trump. We will re-establish a sense of safety for our neighbors, and we will bring an end to this moment of chaos, confusion and trauma.”

He also said he was “proud” but “not at all surprised” at many Minnesotans’ reaction to recent federal actions.

“We’re an island of decency and a country being driven towards cruelty. We will remain an island of decency, of justice, unity, of peace, and tonight, I come before you simply to ask, don’t let anyone take that away from us.”