Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz escalated his rhetoric against federal immigration enforcement on Sunday by likening Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in his state to the Nazi occupation that forced Anne Frank into hiding.
The comparison came after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an anti-ICE protester killed by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, which has prompted Minnesota Democrats to demand that ICE withdraw from the state entirely, according to the Daily Caller. Walz asserted that the children of illegal immigrants in Minnesota are enduring experiences akin to those of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis for more than two years during Adolf Hitlers occupation of the Netherlands.
We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebodys going to write that childrens story about Minnesota and theres one person who can end this now and Ill go back to it again. Please show some decency, Walz said, invoking one of historys most tragic episodes to condemn current immigration enforcement. His remarks reflect a growing trend on the left of equating lawful border and immigration control with totalitarian brutality, a comparison many conservatives view as historically illiterate and deeply offensive to Holocaust victims.
The governors comments come amid ongoing unrest following the death of Renee Good, who was shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 after she rammed him with her vehicle, causing internal bleeding. In response to the escalating violence and civil disorder, President Donald Trumps administration deployed nearly 1,000 additional ICE agents to Minnesota to restore order and enforce federal law.
During a surprise appearance at a White House briefing on Tuesday, President Trump displayed several mugshots of illegal aliens arrested by ICE in Minnesota. These individuals, he noted, had been charged with crimes including molestation, drug possession and terroristic threats, underscoring the public-safety rationale for robust immigration enforcement that many on the left continue to dismiss.
Walz, however, has doubled down on his support for the anti-ICE protests and has urged Minnesotans to record agents activities whenever possible. Following Prettis death, he accused ICE of organized brutality and horrific cruelty, language that further inflamed tensions rather than encouraging calm and respect for the rule of law.
The federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. And today, that campaign claimed yet another life, Walz said on Saturday, framing federal officers as occupiers rather than law enforcers. Such rhetoric, critics argue, risks legitimizing mob action against federal personnel and undermining the constitutional framework that places immigration policy firmly in federal hands.
Hundreds of businesses shut their doors on Friday as organizers urged residents to skip work and school to protest ICE, with some demonstrators actively obstructing federal operations. The climate of hostility turned explicitly violent when a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer had part of his finger bitten off by an anti-ICE rioter on Saturday, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has also moved against activists who targeted religious worship in their campaign against immigration enforcement.
Federal prosecutors charged Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for disrupting a service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, because the pastor also serves as an ICE official, and although the three have been released, the case highlights how anti-ICE agitation has expanded from street protests to direct attacks on churches and federal officers alike.
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