Minneapolis mayor defends sanctuary stance after illegal immigrant allegedly kills woman while drunk driving

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday doubled down on his position of not cooperating with federal immigration authorities when asked about the case of an illegal alien who killed a local woman while allegedly driving drunk. 

Frey, who has repeatedly called for the Trump administration to claw back the deployment of U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the city, defended his stance during a Wednesday appearance on "Fox & Friends."

"We are willing to work with people when it's about murder and when it's about crime. But the truth is that this ain't about that," Frey said. "We love them and we care about them," he said of the city's immigrant community. 

MINNEAPOLIS-AREA LEADERS CONDEMN ICE, CALL FOR REMOVAL AMID TRUMP DEPORTATION CAMPAIGN

Fox News' Griff Jenkins then asked Frey about the case of Victoria Eileen Harwell, who was killed in August 2024 by an illegal immigrant from Ecuador. 

Llangari Inga was arrested on suspicion of the crime before ICE lodged a detainer request with the Hennepin County Jail, which released Inga without notifying federal authorities. 

Llangari was arrested again on May 10, 2025, on a warrant for vehicular homicide by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and ICE placed a detainer the same day. He was released three days later without notification of ICE. 

ICE eventually arrested Inga on May 16, 2025. A preliminary breathalyzer revealed that Inga's blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota. A test of a blood sample collected by police about 2.5 hours later found his BAC was 0.141%, still well above the legal limit, authorities said. 

"Remember sanctuary politicians are fighting for criminal illegal aliens," Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, said at the time. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are fighting for the victims of illegal alien crime, like Eileen Harwell."

Since Trump took office, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Frey have refused to cooperate with ICE and released nearly 470 criminal illegal immigrants back onto the streets of Minnesota-including Victoria Eileen Harwell's killer, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. 

ICE DIRECTOR FIRES BACK AT 'SQUAD' LAWMAKERS OVER 'POLITICAL RHETORIC' AFTER FATAL MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING

Jenkins asked Frey why won't his administration cooperate with ICE to safely take illegal immigrants with criminal records or those wanted for crimes into federal custody. 

The mayor maintained that most of the people being arrested by ICE are not "a problem" for the city. 

"If you commit a crime, if you commit fraud, if you commit carjacking or a murder, you should be investigated, charged, prosecuted, held accountable, and yes, arrested and put in jail," Frey said. "That is my position. If you commit a crime and you are a problem on the streets of the city of Minneapolis, that has made us less safe."

"What I am saying is that a lot of the people that ICE is picking up right now in our city are not a problem for Minneapolis," he added. 

He said that many of the city's immigrants have opened businesses and have been in the city for longer than himself. 

"We've got to be thinking about other people as if it were ourselves," he said. "What would we do in these situations? How would we handle ourselves? "We care deeply about our immigrant population. We care about everybody in our city, and what we're seeing right now is the kind of chaos that is being caused by this massive influx of ICE agents isn't helpful."