BROOKLYN PARK — Gov. Tim Walz lauded the work of journalists here during a luncheon at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s annual convention. While offering a crowd what it wants to hear is routine fare for a politician, Walz’s comments came amid the backdrop of what many have called a federal siege of the Twin Cities and at a time when reporters from news media around the world have arrived to report on the Trump administration’s astonishing actions.
“We are in a moment that the world is watching,” said Walz, speaking just five days after Border Patrol agents gunned down Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street. “I, for one, in this moment, am thankful for many things. I’m thankful for a robust press that’s here, telling a story that needs to get out. [These are] folks that are putting themselves out there, literally out there, on the line in the middle of things happening.”
Walz said that Minnesotans are angry about the actions of the thousands of federal agents sent to the state by President Donald Trump and noted that federal agents and their agencies are largely non-responsive to questions from average citizens.
“In Minnesota, 5.6 million people can’t stand and ask them the questions they want to ask. That’s the job of the press — that and expecting an answer.”
Walz, who spoke shortly after a phone conversation with Trump, said he was being measured in his comments.
“I recognize that’s not normally my MO, but I recognize the moment we’re in, the need to restore both safety, security, and a sense of well-being in a community that has been shattered.”
With administration officials claiming that the state is failing to comply with its requests, known as “detainers,” to transfer custody of convicted criminals in Minnesota prisons, Walz answered those claims directly in his speech to journalists.
“You have my absolute commitment that we will honor every single detainer on every prisoner that’s in our prisons, to turn people over just like we have done for 30 years,” he said. “But I am not going to help them raid daycares. That’s not my job.”
Walz rejected the characterizations of federal officials who have suggested that the state’s leaders don’t care about dangerous criminals on the streets of their cities.
“Of course we do,” said Walz. “But we also recognize that what we’ve witnessed over the last few weeks has certainly made no one safer. It has certainly not increased anyone’s trust. It has certainly not gotten at the heart of a humane and effective immigration policy.”
While Walz said he appreciated the recent federal willingness to at least talk about the situation in the Twin Cities, he said there needs to be recognition of the costs in human lives.
“Sometimes, in these elected positions, you just need to say you’re sorry. A ‘sorry’ would really help and I encourage you to continue to pass that off to our federal partners,” he added.
Walz said he was taken aback the week before, when he received a demand from Attorney General Pam Bondi that implied that the federal surge could be scaled back if the state would hand over voter data, including identifying voter information.
“That took me by surprise,” said Walz, noting that federal officials have given various rationale for the immigration surge. “That wasn’t what I thought this was about.”
Trump originally cited the state’s fraud problem in justifying the surge of federal immigration officers, but that argument was later replaced by a claim that the state’s unwillingness to comply with federal detainers made the surge necessary. State officials, including Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, have pushed back hard on those claims, providing both documentation and video of the routine transfer of undocumented felons from state to federal custody.
Walz challenged the notion himself. “Why would I as governor go out of my way to not turn someone over who is a criminal, who would make my state less safe? That doesn’t make any sense, but the fact of the matter is that Minnesota has always honored our commitments. Now, you know this, too.”

Access to information
While most of the governor’s comments focused on the federal surge, he also made a pitch to the assembled reporters to push for greater transparency from the Legislature. Walz stressed the importance of transparency and accountability in government and said his office has, to date, provided more than 15 million pages of documents in response to data practices requests.
While that response takes time, Walz encouraged reporters to keep pushing.
“That’s how you see accountability. That’s how you get trust,” he said. Walz asked the room for help this legislative session in his bid to extend the data practices requirements to state lawmakers themselves.
“I’m going to make one plug for this legislative session,” he said. “It boggles my mind that state legislators are the only group that are exempt from data practices requests. It is absolutely ludicrous.”
Walz said he hopes to build a coalition to extend the authority of the data practices act to include members of the Legislature, to extend accountability to those who make the laws, rather than just those charged with carrying them out.