Democrats have a messaging problem, and it’s not Fox News or “right-wing misinformation.” It’s reality refusing to follow the script.
No matter how carefully the narrative is rehearsed, illegal immigrants keep blowing their cues by committing crimes so brutal they turn talking points into liabilities. Sanctuary cities are supposed to be morality plays about compassion and inclusion. Instead, they keep producing police blotters that read like indictments of the policy itself. When that happens, Democrats don’t pivot to solutions, they pivot to storytelling, hoping voters won’t notice the bodies behind the curtain.
In our latest incident, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stepped up to the microphone and spun a tale so strange it deserves its own children’s book.
🚨 BREAKING: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says the original federal plan in Minnesota was to arrest and deport Somali people, only for ICE to realize 99% of those targeted Somalis are U.S. citizens and then shift their focus to Latino and other immigrant communities. pic.twitter.com/zoMgD2wKGi
— Fortunately Blessed 🇸🇴 (@BoomThatsGenius) January 10, 2026
According to Frey, ICE arrived in Minnesota ready to scoop up Somalis, only to have an awakening mid-raid.
According to Frey, ICE learned late that the Somalis who came here on bogus asylum claims are indeed Americans now, so hand off.
ICE, suddenly embarrassed, pivoted, then targeted and arrested other ethnic groups instead. If you think story sounds like it was scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin at City Hall, you are not alone.
Even if we suspend disbelief and let that fantasy breathe for a moment, reality comes crashing through the window wearing a badge.
ICE has released a list of the worst criminal aliens they arrested during their surge in Minnesota, a so-called sanctuary state where local politicians pride themselves on keeping federal immigration enforcement at arm’s length. These were not jaywalkers or paperwork violators. These were people with records that read like horror movie scripts, many with deportation orders collecting dust for decades while politicians congratulated themselves for being compassionate.
Start with the child predators.
- Sriudorn Phaivan, a Laotian illegal alien, convicted of strong-arm sodomy of a boy and a girl, ordered deported in 2018 and still wandering around years later.
- Tou Vang, also Laotian, convicted of sexual assault and sodomy of a girl under 13 and even procuring a child for prostitution. His deportation order dated back to 2006.
- Chong Vue, another Laotian convicted of the strong-arm rape of a 12-year-old girl and kidnapping a child with intent to sexually assault her had a deportation order since 2004.
- Ge Yang, convicted of strong-arm rape, aggravated assault with a weapon, and strangulation, was ordered deported in 2012. Nothing happened.
- Pao Choua Xiong–care to guess where he was from–yes another Laotian was convicted of rape and child fondling and had a deportation order since 2003.
- Kou Lor–did Laos empty its jails of rapists–another Laotian convicted of rape, rape with a weapon, and sexual assault, was ordered deported all the way back in 1996.
- Hernan Cortes-Valencia, Mexican illegal alien (finally, not a Laotian) was convicted of sexual assault of a child and DUI and was under a deportation order since 2016.
These are not clerical errors. These are violent criminals who stayed because the system chose not to move them out.
Then there are the killers.
- Abdirashid Adosh Elmi, a Somali illegal alien convicted of homicide.
- Gilberto Salguero Landaverde, from El Salvador, convicted of three counts of homicide with a deportation order issued in June 2025.
- Gabriel Figueroa Gama, a Mexican illegal alien convicted of homicide who had already been deported once before in 2002 and somehow found his way back into Minnesota’s warm, welcoming embrace.
- Galuak Michael Rotgai, a Sudanese illegal alien convicted of homicide.
- Thai Lor, Laotian, convicted of two counts of homicide with a deportation order sitting idle since 2009.
- Mariana Sia Kanu, from Sierra Leone, convicted of two counts of homicide, ordered deported in 2022.
- Aldrin Guerrero Munoz, Mexican, convicted of homicide with a deportation order since 2015.
- Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed, Somali, convicted of manslaughter with a deportation order issued in 2022.
- Mongong Dual Maniang Deng, Sudanese, convicted of attempted homicide, weapon possession, and DUI.
- Aler Gomez Lucas, Guatemalan, convicted of negligent homicide with a vehicle and DUI, deportation order since 2022.
- Shwe Htoo, Burmese, convicted of negligent homicide.
This is not a hypothetical parade of villains dreamed up by talk radio.
This is ICE’s own list of people who were caught roaming freely in Minnesota before they were finally arrested. And did you note the countries?
Amazing that according to Frey, ICE went to Minneapolis to target Somalis, and they accidentally bumped into criminals from Laos, Burma, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Somalia, Guatemala, and many more.
The “leadership” in Minnesota exposed citizens of America to this brutality, as they ignored paperwork, shrugged at warrant, and treated deportation orders like polite suggestions.
And this is where Mayor Frey’s fairy tale collapses under its own weight.
While he’s busy framing ICE as bumbling tourists who got confused about citizenship, his city and his state were harboring convicted child rapists, killers, and violent felons. Not accidentally. Intentionally. Because sanctuary policy is not about mercy for the innocent, it is about defiance of federal law, no matter who benefits from that defiance.
The same politicians who downplay massive Somali fraud in Minnesota and wave away concerns about illegal immigration now stand shoulder to shoulder with protestors trying to stop ICE from doing the one job the system refused to do for years–remove violent criminals from American neighborhoods.
Sure, the occasional nanny gets picked up in the dragnet, and those stories are real tear-jerkers and tragedies of sort. But get her legally, and don’t harbor the bad guys.
Understand that rapists and murderers have families too. And those families said nothing about the crimes of their kinfolk, making them complicit in those crimes as well. ICE caught rapists and murders who had deportation orders older than some of their victims.
So when Jacob Frey says ICE “shifted” their focus, what he really means is that reality shifted into view.
Sanctuary rhetoric sounds noble until you attach names, crimes, and body counts to it. Then it looks less like compassion and more like negligence wearing a virtue badge. You be the judge whether this is the kind of progress Minneapolis should be bragging about.
