The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slammed Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for comparing federal immigration agents to the secret police of Nazi Germany.
While speaking during a Saturday commencement address at the University of Minnesota Law School, Walz referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as President Donald Trump’s “modern-day Gestapo,” accusing the agency of disappearing people with no due process. DHS, the department that oversees ICE, called the governor’s comments “absolutely sickening” and “wrong”.
“It is absolutely sickening to compare ICE law enforcement agents to the Gestapo,” DHS said Sunday in a social media post. “Attacks and demonization of ICE and our partners is wrong.”
“ICE officers are now facing a 413% increase in assaults,” the department continued. “Our message is clear: DO NOT come to this country illegally. If you do, we will arrest you, deport you and you will never return.”
Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Democratic governor, during his address, accused immigration agents of acting as nefarious actors at Trump’s behest and appeared to reference the Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison facility in El Salvador the administration has used to house some alleged criminal deportees.
“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” he said Saturday. “They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons — no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”
“To be clear, there’s no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not, because they refused to give them a trial,” Walz claimed. “We’re supposed to just take their word for it.”
Walz — who was chosen as a running mate by then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election — lost his bid for the vice presidency in a national election largely centered around the issue of illegal immigration.
As governor of Minnesota, Walz has ushered in a slate of far-left immigration initiatives and positions. He publicly declared his support for sanctuary policies during his 2018 gubernatorial run, signed into law a state bill allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and he signed into law legislation that gives state-funded healthcare and free college tuition to illegal immigrants.
Since his failed vice presidential bid and return to St. Paul, Minnesota, the governor has positioned himself as a critic of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.
The Trump administration, for its part, has made incredible strides in reducing illegal immigration at the border and bolstering enforcement in the interior of the country since returning to power.
Daily border encounters have fallen 93% and migrant crossings are down by 99.99%, according to a 100-day fact sheet the White House shared with the DCNF in late April. Encounters with “gotaways” — illegal migrants who successfully avoid Border Patrol apprehension and considered to be a top public safety threat — fell by 95%. Less than 7,200 border encounters were recorded in March 2025, the lowest monthly number of border encounters in recorded history.
Immigration agents arrested more than 151,000 illegal migrants and deported more than 135,000 in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, according to the White House fact sheet. This number includes 600 Tren de Aragua gang members and thousands of other MS-13 affiliates.
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