WASHINGTON – Gov. Tim Walz and two other governors were attacked by GOP lawmakers who said their state policies toward immigrants promote lawlessness during a contentious hearing Thursday that was short on serious questioning and long on self-serving political speeches.
Walz and Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and JB Pritzker of Illinois were asked to appear before the panel a month ago to defend what GOP lawmakers say are “sanctuary” policies. But they were given little time to respond to a barrage of questions and accusations that the governors were responsible for violent crimes committed by immigrants in their states.
At one point during the hearing Walz said, “I did not realize how much anger there was here.”
In his opening remarks, House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., focused on attacking Walz for saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are behaving like the Gestapo and for Minnesota’s decision to provide undocumented immigrants with driver’s licenses and state-funded health care.
“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” Walz said at a University of Minnesota Law School graduation last month.
In his opening statement, the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel, Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, echoed Walz’s comment when he spoke of the ICE’s detainment of Turkish foreign student Rümeysa Öztürk.
“When you compare the old films of the Gestapo grabbing people off the streets of Poland and you compare them to those nondescript thugs who grabbed that graduate student it does look like a Gestapo operation,” Lynch said.
Walz insisted Minnesota is not a sanctuary state.
“Minnesota’s Legislature has passed no such law making Minnesota a sanctuary state and I have not signed any such legislation into law,” the governor said in his opening statement.
Connecticut, Illinois, California and other states have approved “Trust Acts” that limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE unless an individual has been convicted of a serious crime, preventing the needless detention of people for immigration purposes. Minnesota has not passed such a law.
Walz said Minnesota cooperates with federal authorities “in a number of ways,” including asking the immigration status of convicted felons and sharing that information with the Department of Homeland Security, a policy that is codified by Minnesota state law.
Walz also said Minnesota complies with federal requests to detain an immigrant when those requests are accompanied by a judicial warrant.
“Minnesotans are angry with what they see happening to their neighbors,” Walz said, because they are watching people being “snatched up” and sent to overseas prisons without due process.
Related: Walz readies for coordinated GOP attack in hearing over ‘sanctuary’ policies
Walz said he was “disappointed” that “at a crucial inflection point in U.S. history,” Congress was misspending its time and energy holding a hearing to attack the policies of Minnesota and other “blue” states.
Democrats on the panel, meanwhile, attacked the Trump administration for its aggressive deportation policy, which has snared law abiding immigrants and even U.S. citizens, and for its decision to send National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles, which has experienced a week of protests over ICE actions in the state.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, who is not a member of the oversight panel, was invited as a special guest and joined the GOP effort to batter the witnesses, focusing on Walz.
“You claim you are not a sanctuary state, but you provide free health care, college education and driver’s licenses to illegal aliens,” Emmer said in an angry tirade.
Emmer also said Walz’s comments about the Gestapo was “inflammatory language that put a target on the backs of federal agents.”
Walz was given little time to respond, but managed to ask Emmer “which of the questions do you want me to answer first?”
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