A heated press conference by U.S. Border Patrol in Minneapolis came just hours after a video of Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino went viral, showing him confronting protesters during an immigration enforcement operation on a snowy city street. In the footage, Bovino — who has been leading the administration’s big-city immigration campaign — is seen repeatedly warning demonstrators that “gas is coming!” before tossing a canister that released green smoke into a crowd of protesters on Wednesday. Addressing reporters afterward, Bovino defended ongoing ICE and Border Patrol operations under Title Eight authority and described what he called an increasingly hostile environment for federal law enforcement in Minneapolis. “This climate is not very favourable to federal law enforcement here in Minneapolis,” Bovino said, accusing “violent protesters, anarchists, rioters, individuals and extremists” of attempting to disrupt arrests. Bovino detailed an incident involving two off-duty federal agents who were allegedly surrounded by a mob while eating at a downtown Minneapolis restaurant. According to him, the agents were trapped for nearly 45 minutes after restaurant staff attempted to lock them inside with “40 to 50 agitators.” “Minneapolis Police Department was called. They never showed up,” he said, adding that a federal tactical team was ultimately deployed to extract the agents. When asked whether there was a target number of arrests or a timeline for ending operations in Minneapolis, Bovino responded bluntly: “There is a number and it’s called all of them.” He said the enforcement mission would continue “until there are no more of those criminal illegal aliens roaming the streets of Minneapolis.”