State had no advance notice of federal raid in Minneapolis, Gov. Tim Walz says

Nathaniel Minor, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jun 6, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — Federal law enforcement agencies did not warn state officials before they raided a Mexican restaurant in south Minneapolis earlier this week, Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday.

“They didn’t tell us what was happening,” Walz told a group of States Newsroom editors, according to a recording of the interview shared by Walz’s staff.

The raid was one of eight across the Twin Cities on Tuesday and culminated in confrontations between protestors and law enforcement on E. Lake Street.

“It was chaotic,” Walz said. “Any professional, especially in law enforcement or the military, tells you, you do not want chaos.”

Federal officials said the raids were part of a probe into a “transnational criminal organization” and were focused on human and drug trafficking and money laundering.

The raids were carried out by an alphabet soup of federal agencies, including the DEA, FBI, ATF and ICE. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the operation was the state’s first under the “Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) umbrella — marking a new chapter in how we confront complex, multidimensional threats."

State officials are supportive of federal efforts to combat such crimes, Walz said, but he criticized how it was carried out.

“I don’t see how anybody can think it’s a good situation to see a heavy militarized presence in a residential neighborhood,” Walz said.

In Thursday’s interview, Walz said the state’s communication with the federal government is “non-existent” right now. The state recently asked for a meeting with a Veterans’ Affairs official over a non-political issue, Walz said, and was told a mere answer to whether the meeting could happen would take weeks.

“No one is allowed to talk to us, and that’s really problematic,” he said.

Walz has also targeted the Trump administration in more overtly political, and aggressive, ways in recent weeks.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, criticized Walz during a wide-ranging briefing at the White House on Thursday, saying he was a bad choice for the vice presidential nominee and calling him a “sick puppy.”

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