St. Paul Police Federation President Mark Ross said that if local officers had been allowed to coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, two deaths could have been prevented.
“Had we been allowed just a little bit of coordination – not in terms of what ICE is doing, but if they say, ‘Hey, we need to go to this place to serve a warrant, we’re going to be out there a couple hours. We’re nervous that crowds are going to form and give us trouble. Can you come out and help?’ That’s something we can easily coordinate with a little bit of notice, and sometimes with hardly any notice, we can get out there quickly,” Ross said.
“Unfortunately, our local politicians would not allow us to do that,” he added.
“I believe, had we been able to do that, that there would be no loss of life at this point,” he added.
Two people were killed during confrontations between protesters and federal agents.