The Prairie Village City Council this week passed a resolution expressing its “solidarity” with Minneapolis, a city at the heart of escalating and deadly tensions over a federal immigration crackdown.
After some discussion and receiving public comments both for and against the resolution, the city council unanimously approved the measure, which says in part that Prairie Village “stands in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis and the broader community affected by these events, affirming the importance of human dignity, safety, and equitable justice.”
The resolution also calls for “prompt, transparent and independent” investigations into the killings of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents.
Prairie Village’s resolution also calls “on all relevant authorities to prioritize de-escalation, restraint, and respect for human life in all enforcement actions.”
Prairie Village plans to send the resolution to the Minneapolis City Council.
“Minneapolis is Prairie Village, and Prairie Village is Minneapolis,” said Councilmember Betsy Lawrence, who drafted the resolution and brought it forward Monday alongside Councilmember Nathan Vallette.
The city council also approved incorporating a separate resolution written by Councilmember Terry O’Toole that signals support for law enforcement. The two resolutions were combined into one before being approved unanimously.
Watch the entire city council discussion online here, starting at 1:55:52.
“Endorsing … empathy, restraint, de-escalation”
Lawrence said the intent of the resolution supporting Minneapolis is more about “endorsing principles” like “empathy, restraint, de-escalation, respect for human life, respect for the freedom of speech.”
The resolution is not about taking a political stance, Lawrence said, adding that she “wrestled” with the question of why Prairie Village should say or do anything at all.
Ultimately, Lawrence said, it came down to Prairie Village and Minneapolis being two Midwestern cities that are under the same federal laws.
“What our federal government does to enforce U.S. laws in one city will be done in another U.S. city,” Lawrence said.
For his part, Vallette said the resolution focuses mainly on civil liberties and humanity.
If kids or community members ask what Prairie Village would do if something similar to what has happened in Minneapolis happened here, Vallette said, then this resolution offers an answer.
“To me, this is an opportunity for us to say, well, ‘We believe that the Constitution actually provides us with protections that we should all be willing to fight for,’” Vallette said.
Below is a copy of Lawrence and Vallette’s resolution in the packet, starting on page 112.
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Open in new tab City council also signals support for law enforcement
After some discussion, the city council agreed to combine both the Minneapolis resolution and the resolution centered on law enforcement brought forward by O’Toole on Monday night.
O’Toole’s resolution signaled support for law enforcement, stating in part that “the vast majority of police officers, federal agents, firefighters … and other first responders carry out their duties honorably, lawfully and with a deep commitment to public service.”
A full version of the law enforcement resolution is embedded below.
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Initially, O’Toole expressed concerns with the Minneapolis resolution due to residents seeing it as a political stance — even if that was not the intent of the resolution.
O’Toole said he brought the resolution supporting law enforcement forward in the event that the Minneapolis resolution passed.
“I am a firm believer that the police, federal, state and local do the best they can in difficult situations to protect us all,” O’Toole said.
Though he initially opposed the idea of combining the two resolutions, O’Toole ultimately supported coupling them and voted for the combined resolution in the end.
City staff plans to combine the two resolutions and send one document to the Minneapolis City Council.
The broader context
For weeks now, protesters and immigration enforcement agents have clashed in Minnesota’s biggest city over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions. In the course of the tensions and conflicts, federal agents have shot and killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Those killings, in part, prompted the Prairie Village City Council’s vote on Monday.
After discussion and receiving public comments, the city council unanimously approved a resolution signaling Prairie Village’s support for Minneapolis in the wake of the ongoing federal immigration operations there.
Two days after the city council’s vote, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced a reduction in the number of federal agents in Minnesota by about 700, though operations to detain individuals in the country illegally would continue, he said.
The simmering conflict in Minnesota has begun to percolate locally, with a handful of local elected officials weighing in publicly.
Prairie Village, however, appears to be the first local governmental body to pass such a resolution showing solidarity with Minnesota.
Prairie Village’s unanimous vote Monday came after Johnson County Commissioner Becky Fast posted on Facebook last month about her “moral outrage” over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Fast, a Minnesota native, received far-right social media backlash for that Facebook post, but told the Post that she stands by her comments.
County Chairman Mike Kelly shared similar support for Minnesota on social media.
Prairie Village Mayor Eric Mikkelson also previously posted to social media, explaining how municipal authorities in his city work with federal immigration agents and how immigration enforcement actions could play out here.
Split opinions from public commenters
A handful of residents spoke about the Minneapolis resolution at Monday’s city council meeting, with four in support and three against the action.
Jim Rosberg said the resolution shows political bias and puts the city council’s “virtue signaling on full display.” He said the killings of the “pawns” in Minnesota “is tragic and preventable,” adding that Prairie Village is “stoking the fire.”
“The rioters in Minnesota are far from peaceful,” Rosberg said. “Impeding law enforcement at any level is unacceptable.”
Barbara Cantrell, the wife of John Cantrell — who requested a recount of the “abandon” vote in the 2025 general election and is now refusing to pay for the recount — said she had recently witnessed a traffic stop by a Prairie Village police officer.
“It wasn’t my place to interfere with his job,” Cantrell said. “I didn’t run outside, kick out the tail lights of the officer’s vehicle, spit on him because I felt like I knew more than he does. He is a trained police officer doing his job that protects and serves this community. Respect for the police and federal agents is part of what is supposed to keep our city safe.”
Other residents like Ann Melia and Ed Stevenson supported the resolution. Stevenson said his 8-year-old step-grandson goes to school less than two blocks from where Pretti was killed in Minneapolis.
Stevenson said ICE agents are acting as a “vast, masked and lawless army prowling our country, unaccountable to any common constitutional and common law standards.”
Rick Wohlfarth, who attended the University of Minnesota along with his wife, said he lived in Minneapolis for eight years — 14 blocks away from where Good was killed.
From loved ones still living in Minneapolis, Wohlfarth said he has heard that ICE agents are going door-to-door, “operating extra-judicially” and “with no due process.”
Wohlfarth warned that if the immigration crackdown is not stopped in Minneapolis, “it will eventually happen here, too.”
As Wohlfarth spoke “out against these horrific actions,” he noted that he was exercising the same right afforded to Minneapolis protesters and “that is under attack nationwide by an administration intent on silencing dissent.”
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