#
0 likes1 view

ICE Director Todd Lyons Weighs in on Operations in Minneapolis, Calls Out Elected Officials for Dangerous Rhetoric – (VIDEO)

January 18, 2026

News segment featuring a woman in glasses discussing with a man in a suit, set against a city backdrop with American flags.

News segment featuring a woman in glasses discussing with a man in a suit, set against a city backdrop with American flags.

ICE Director Todd Lyons was on “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo to talk about ICE operations in Minneapolis.

“It feels like the Democrats lit the match and now they are trying to attack the agents who are doing their job,” Bartiromo said.

“These Democrats oversaw a wide-open border where some criminals came in. 350 people on the terrorist watchlist were encountered under Biden’s years,” Bartiromo said.

“Then they told citizens to get in the faces of ICE when ICE reacted. Now they are attacking ICE for doing their job,” Bartiromo said.

“What is taking place here? Please tell us,” Bartiromo continued.

Lyons explained that rhetoric coming from elected officials, mainly on the left, had increased attacks against ICE agents.

“We started seeing this back in April, and I, you know, I sent up the flare and started asking, you know, elected officials not to stoke such dangerous rhetoric about ICE,” Lyons said.

“You are seeing attacks on ICE officers and our other federal partners for only going out there and doing their law enforcement mission,” Lyons continued.

“We went to Minnesota on that criminal fraud case over 9 billion dollars. Homeland Security investigations and the FBI were investigating. At the same time, we had more than 470 criminal illegal aliens this year alone since President Trump took office rereleased back into the communities,” Lyons said.

Lyons also explained that federal law enforcement uses social media to show that they are specifically targeting illegal alien criminals. He also said that the accusation that ICE is targeting US citizens is completely false.

“If you look at our social media sites and see our fresh releases, you’ll see consistently ICE agents, deportation officers have arrested murderers, gang members, serial rapists, people wanted from their home country for heinous crimes,” Lyons continued.

“Yet, unfortunately, you don’t hear that. What automatically assuming from elected officials is that ICE is out there doing something wrong,” Lyons said.

“It’s horrible for the fact that people say that ICE is now targeting US citizens. That’s not the case. We have to send more officers and agents just to protect the men and women that are out there trying to do their regular lawful law enforcement mission,” Lyons explained.

“The narrative that the Democrats are sending out there is that ICE is going down, breaking up families, taking people who are working hard, having people be afraid to go to work,” Bartiromo commented.

“If you go ahead and you look at what we have done since January 20th. You know, 70 percent of all illegal aliens that ICE has arrested last year and going into this calendar year, have criminal convictions, or pending criminal charges, or warrants, or criminal histories back in their home country,” Lyons continued.

“As much press as we do, as many releases as we put out, it’s just no one will pick up the fact that we are actually out there focused on our law enforcement mission,” Lyons said.

“These sanctuary jurisdictions. You would not see this many ICE agents and special agents on the street, focused on the criminal illegal alien mission, if they would just turn people over to us,” Lyons explained.

Watch:

The post ICE Director Todd Lyons Weighs in on Operations in Minneapolis, Calls Out Elected Officials for Dangerous Rhetoric – (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.