Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Tim Walz Compares ICE’s Presence In Minnesota To Anne Frank Facing Nazi Occupation

[Screenshot/CNN]

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) federal operations to the Nazi occupation during Anne Frank’s time during a Sunday news conference.

Walz responded to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an anti-ICE protester shot by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, prompting Democrats in Minnesota to call on ICE to leave the state entirely. The governor claimed that children of illegal immigrants in Minnesota are having similar experiences to Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis for over two years during Adolf Hitler’s 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. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota and there’s one person who can end this now and I’ll go back to it again. Please show some decency,” Walz said. 

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Mass protests have continued to surge across Minnesota since the death of Renee Good, who was shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 after she rammed him with her vehicle and caused internal bleeding. The upheaval prompted President Donald Trump’s administration to deploy nearly 1,000 additional ICE agents to the state.

During a surprise appearance at a White House briefing on Tuesday, Trump presented several mugshots of illegal aliens arrested by ICE in Minnesota, who had committed crimes such as molestation, drug possession and terroristic threats.

Walz has continued to support the protests against ICE and called on Minnesotans to film agents’ operations. Following Pretti’s death, Walz condemned ICE for allegedly engaging in “organized brutality” and “horrific cruelty” during their operations in the state.

“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.

Hundreds of businesses closed and organizers urged people to skip work and school on Friday to protest ICE and in some cases, even obstruct their operations. A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer had part of his finger bitten off by an anti-ICE rioter on Saturday, DHS reported.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) also charged three individuals — Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelly — for disrupting a religious service in Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, because the pastor also serves as an ICE official. They have since been released. All three were charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits the disruption of religious services.