Walz: ICE officers engaged in ‘campaign of organized brutality’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers engaged in a “campaign of organized brutality” after a recent massive federal immigration operation in his state.
“For months, armed, lawless gangs roamed our communities in a campaign of organized brutality. Families lived in fear. Children were separated from their parents, neighbors from neighbors,” Walz said in his final State of the State address about the Trump administration’s winter effort to root out migrants in the country illegally from Minnesota and especially Minneapolis.
“Minnesotans who had done nothing wrong were subjected to racial profiling and unlawful detentions. And for no reason at all, we lost two more of our neighbors: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. We gather tonight in the long shadow of all those tragic, transformative losses. And yet, the state of our state remains strong,” he added.
In mid-February, White House border czar Tom Homan announced that immigration crackdown was set to end in Minnesota, following thousands of arrests, violent protests and the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.
Homan defended ICE and Border Patrol’s work and pointed to a notable drop-off in agitators and cooperation with local officials and law enforcement as a measure of success for the operation.
Throughout President Trump’s second term, there has been heavy criticism of his immigration agenda, but that criticism boiled over following the killings of Pretti and Good by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis in January. For weeks on end, the national spotlight was on the North Star State.
“This winter has been particularly cold and bitter for so many of our neighbors. But we’re ready to move beyond. Beyond this season of grief. We’re never going to forget those that we lost, and neither will we forget what we’ve found to be true about ourselves and our neighbors: that we are strong, we are resilient, we are generous, we are compassionate and we’re in this thing together,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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