Minneapolis ICE shooting updates: Protests remain peaceful despite arrests: Officials

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued operations in the state an hour after Wednesday's deadly shooting in Minneapolis, according to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.

"We continued operations in Minnesota; we're there today, we're still conducting operations, our daily law enforcement mission in all 50 states and territories right now. We're going to keep doing the work," he told Fox News on Thursday.

Lyons said ICE has the "largest contingent" of ICE officers they have ever deployed to one city.

He also called the shooting "totally avoidable" and placed the blame on elected officials calling ICE names.

"So these individuals that are listening to this political rhetoric and following these guidance to go out there and impede us, you know, threaten officers, be legal observers as they say," Lyons said. "Just not right. They shouldn't interject themselves in a potentially deadly situation."

Lyons said that they will be ramping up operations in cities with a "high concentration" of those in the U.S. illegally, but didn't say where.

-ABC News' Luke Barr

Minneapolis Public Schools are closed on Thursday and Friday in wake of the shooting.

Vice President JD Vance is continuing to speak out in defense of the ICE agent who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, boosting the administration's claims that the shooting was in self-defense.

Responding to a repost showing an elevated angle of the shooting, Vance said on X that Democrats should be asked, "Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?"

"These people are going to try to arrest our law enforcement for doing their jobs. The least the media could do is ask them about it," Vance said.

Vance also responded to another account, which defended Good's actions. He called the analyses of the videos, which allege she was seen waving officers by to pass her and that she tried to leave the scene, "preposterous."

"The gaslighting is off the charts and I'm having none of it. This guy was doing his job. She tried to stop him from doing his job. When he approached her car, she tried to hit him," Vance said.

He continued: "A tragedy? Absolutely. But a tragedy that falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with."

-ABC News' Nicholas Kerr and Michelle Stoddart

Tense protests are underway Thursday morning outside the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. Federal agents were seen detaining a demonstrator as people held signs reading, "MURDERERS," and, "YOU'RE NOT WANTED OR WELCOME HERE."

It appears tear gas was deployed at one point.