{"id":470258,"date":"2026-02-15T14:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/470258\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T14:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:45:14","slug":"obama-compares-ices-rogue-behavior-in-minnesota-to-dictatorships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/470258\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama compares ICE\u2019s \u2018rogue behavior\u2019 in Minnesota to dictatorships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Former President Barack Obama criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents\u2019 conduct in Minnesota<\/a> as dangerous, saying \u201cthe rogue behavior\u201d is akin to what \u201cwe\u2019ve seen in authoritarian countries\u201d and \u201cin dictatorships.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The comments, which came during a wide-ranging interview with liberal podcaster<\/a> Brian Tyler Cohen out Saturday, are the latest example of the former president reneging on his long-standing strategy of minimizing<\/a> his public presence to allow the next generation of Democrats to emerge. He deliberately took a back-seat role during former President Joe Biden\u2019s term.\n <\/p>\n

\n Obama, who has previously criticized President Donald Trump\u2019s deployment of federal agents to US cities, called the actions of immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota \u201cdeeply concerning and dangerous.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The sweeping immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, which saw the deployment of roughly 3,000 federal agents, has been hallmarked by numerous videos <\/a>showing federal agents\u2019 aggressive tactics and confrontations with the public.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is important for us to recognize the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis, St. Paul, the way that federal agents \u2014 ICE agents \u2014 were being deployed, without any clear guidelines, training, pulling people out of their homes \u2026 tear-gassing crowds simply who were standing there, not breaking any laws,\u201d Obama said.\n <\/p>\n

\n He added that American citizens should be commended for engaging in \u201cpeaceful protests and shining a light on the sort of behavior that, in the past, we\u2019ve seen in authoritarian countries and we\u2019ve seen in dictatorships, but we have not seen in America.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators<\/p>\n

\n The killings of protesters Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> in January at the hands of immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis prompted outrage in the city and across the nation. The Trump administration this week announced it is ending<\/a> its monthslong immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.\n <\/p>\n

\n Obama, who wrote a column in January<\/a> saying Pretti\u2019s death should be \u201ca wake-up call\u201d that America\u2019s core values are \u201cunder assault,\u201d praised the response of protesters in Minnesota.\n <\/p>\n

\n Protesters have largely adopted a strategy of civil disobedience in Minnesota, which has included alerting their communities<\/a> of the presence of immigration agents using whistles, car horns and shouting, and recording encounters with agents.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat kind of heroic, sustained behavior in subzero weather by ordinary people is what should give us hope,\u201d Obama said in the latest interview.\n <\/p>\n

\n The interview was Obama\u2019s first since Trump\u2019s social media account earlier this month posted and then deleted a racist video depicting<\/a> the former president and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle. Cohen, while mentioning the video, asked Obama how America can reverse the decline of civil discourse.\n <\/p>\n

\n Though Obama didn\u2019t directly address Trump\u2019s post, he said, \u201cThere\u2019s this sort of clown show that\u2019s happening in social media and on television,\u201d adding that people \u201cwho used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect\u201d appear to not be showing \u201cany shame about this.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has refused to apologize for the video, blaming a staffer for the mistake and insisting he hadn\u2019t seen the final frames of the video which contained the offensive content.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,\u201d Obama said. \u201cIt is true that it gets attention. It\u2019s true that it\u2019s a distraction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He argued that America can restore \u201cnorms, rule of law (and) decency\u201d by saying \u201cenough,\u201d something he said he\u2019s now \u201cseeing across the board.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former President Barack Obama criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents\u2019 conduct in Minnesota as dangerous, saying \u201cthe rogue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-470258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}