Jacob Frey, Minneapolis’ Jewish mayor, returns to the spotlight after ICE shooting in his city
Frey attends two Reform synagogues in Minneapolis with his wife Sarah Clarke, a community organizer and lobbyist who recently converted to Judaism
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speaks at a news conference following a shooting in Minneapolis, Minn. by an ICE agent, on Jan. 7, 2026. Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images
(JTA) — Minneapolis’ Jewish mayor Jacob Frey is once again in the spotlight after he delivered a heated message to federal immigration forces on Wednesday after an ICE officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman: “Get the f–k out of Minneapolis.”
“There is little I can say again that will make this situation better, but I do have a message for our community, for our city, and I have a message for ICE,” said Frey. “To ICE, get the f–k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here.”
Frey’s comments came shortly after an ICE agent fired into a car during a confrontation, killing a 37-year-old Renee Good, a U.S. citizen.
While President Donald Trump and other administration officials have claimed that the shooting was an act of self defense and that Good tried to had run over the ICE agent with her car, viral video of the incident does not show her car hitting the agent or driving toward him.
The incident comes as the Trump administration has announced the deployment of 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area amid a crackdown on illegal immigration and allegations of fraud.
ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/1gfFC0Le6Q
— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) January 7, 2026
“Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart,” continued Frey at the new conference.
Frey’s strong stance against ICE in his city is not the first time the 44-year-old Jewish mayor has garnered national attention. When he was first elected in 2017, upsetting an incumbent, he drew attention for his youth and good looks, but he has since intersected with some of the biggest news moments in recent U.S. history.
In 2020, Frey faced condemnation after he declined to throw his support behind abolishing the police in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by four of the city’s police officers. The shooting Wednesday occurred less than a mile from the site of Floyd’s murder, which sparked nationwide protests against police brutality.
In February 2024, Frey vetoed his city council’s resolution endorsing a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, calling it “a one-sided resolution that adds more division to an already fraught situation.”
While Frey said that he supported a ceasefire at the time, he said that the ceasefire resolution “uplifts the history of Palestinians, and all but erases that of Israeli Jews.”
Frey grew up in Oakton, Virginia, in a Reform Jewish household, the son of parents who both worked as professional ballet dancers.
“We weren’t as much religiously Jewish,” he said in 2019, as he first tangled with Trump after saying the city would not foot the bill for security for Trump’s rally there. “I’m not even sure [whether] my mother believes in God or not, but she took tradition very seriously—bagels and lox on Sunday, no questions.”
After Trump tweeted attacks on him at the time, calling him a “lightweight mayor,” Frey received threatening social media messages and phone calls. Some contained antisemitic rhetoric, he said.
Frey attends two Reform synagogues in Minneapolis — Temple Israel and Shir Tikvah — together with his wife Sarah Clarke, a community organizer and lobbyist who recently converted to Judaism. The couple has two young daughters, and Frey frequently posts about celebrating Jewish holidays on his Instagram account.
The mayor draws inspiration from Jewish values, he said in 2019.
“The moral imperative outlined by tikkun olam,” he said, referring to the Hebrew phrase for the Jewish precept to heal the world, “is something I believe in strongly and is foundational both to Judaism but also my philosophy in government.”
In November, Frey, who is a member of the state’s Democratic Farm and Labor Party, won a third term as Minneapolis mayor against a democratic socialist opponent who had said he would not affiliate with “Zionist lobby groups.” His opponent, state Sen. Omar Fateh, drew comparisons to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
