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Florida and Texas, not Minnesota, have the highest shares of undocumented immigrants

Poynter · Amy Sherman · last updated

JD Vance said Minneapolis leads the nation in undocumented immigration. Census and research data show otherwise.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security surged 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minnesota — a state more than a thousand miles from the southern border that’s not known for having a sizable population of immigrants in the U.S. illegally — calling it the largest such operation ever. Many people have wondered: Why Minnesota?

Vice President JD Vance, who visited Minneapolis on Jan. 22 to defend federal immigration enforcement, gave a misleading answer.

“Right now, we’re focused on Minneapolis because that’s where we have the highest concentration of people who have violated our immigration laws, and that’s also, frankly, where we see the most assault of our law enforcement officers,” Vance said during a press conference.

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