JD Vance just got outed pushing an allegedly bogus account of an encounter between immigration enforcement agents and protesters in Minnesota.
“When I was in Minneapolis, I heard a number of crazy stories,” the vice president posted this week, outlining one incident “near the top of the list.”
Vance claimed that off-duty ICE agents and officers with Customs and Border Protection had stopped for dinner at a restaurant in the Twin Cities earlier this month.
According to him, they were “doxed and their location revealed, and the restaurant was then mobbed,” with the federal agents then supposedly “locked in” at the premises as “local police refused to respond to their pleas for help.”
“This is just a taste of what’s happening in Minneapolis,” Vance wrote.
It’s not, though. At least, not according to local police, or the Department of Homeland Security, or the man who actually owns the restaurant where the incident in question took place.
A Minneapolis Police Department representative told Politico on Friday that officers had “monitored the situation” at the Darbar India Grill & Bar restaurant, and “determined that the federal agents had sufficient resources available to manage the incident.”
The agents were reportedly able to leave within 15 minutes of initially placing a 911 call.
Politico further obtained a copy of an internal DHS report about the encounter that noted local police weren’t notified of the incident until after the federal agents had already departed.
The report describes a much less dramatic confrontation than that depicted by Vance. “A young adult male wearing a black mask was seen walking around their rental vehicle, a white Ford Expedition, before entering the restaurant and approaching the agents,” it reportedly reads.
“The subject accused agents of being ICE personnel, referencing the Ford Expedition as a known ICE vehicle and claiming access to a database of such vehicles,” the report said.
By this stage, a crowd of roughly 30 people are understood to have gathered outside the restaurant, and “a female subject behind the agents locked the restaurant doors, preventing exit.”
The agents are nevertheless said to have been “extracted” within just nine minutes, with “no injuries or use of force reported.”
Balli Singh, who manages the restaurant, further told Politico he didn’t see anyone lock the doors and claimed Vance had inaccurately described what happened on the night in question.
“Singh said the officers were in the middle of their meal when a few people came into the restaurant and told Singh they suspected ICE was there,” the outlet reported. “Singh said more people arrived outside and began congregating around the car. Meanwhile, the two agents told their server they were being harassed.”
“One guy actually told me, ‘Brother, don’t come between this,’” Singh was quoted saying, adding he’d heard one of the officers say “we’ll teach them a lesson” before other officers arrived. The men left not long after, he said.
Vance’s post, which has more than 22 million views, came the day after Border Patrol agents fatally shot 37-year-old protester Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street. Pretti’s death followed the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mom-of-three, by an ICE agent earlier this month.
The vice president accused local law enforcement of not doing enough to protect immigration enforcement agents in the Twin Cities.
“They have created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border,” he said.
“The solution is staring everyone in the face,” he added. “I hope authorities in Minneapolis stop this madness.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Vance’s representatives and the DHS for comment.
“We can confirm VP’s post is accurate,” Homeland Security Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Politico. “This type of behavior is un-American and disgraceful,” she added.
