Stop Comparing ICE To The Gestapo, Homeland Security Says | EUROtoday

The Department of Homeland Security is now looking for to distance itself from comparisons to Nazi Germany after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) referred to as its Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers a “modern-day Gestapo.”

“It is absolutely sickening to compare ICE law enforcement agents to the Gestapo,” Homeland Security mentioned Sunday on its official X account, referencing the police pressure that apprehended and deported teams of individuals labeled political enemies in Nazi Germany.

“Attacks and demonization of ICE and our partners is wrong,” the division mentioned. “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.”

The publish additionally echoed a statistic contained in final week’s assertion from DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who mentioned “attacks and smears” towards ICE have led to a “413% increase in assaults,” though she didn’t present extra particulars.

Video of ICE operations across the nation has sounded alarm bells amongst immigration and democracy advocates as brokers with face coverings are seen wrangling folks into their custody. President Donald Trump and his supporters say that they’re concentrating on gang members and violent criminals, though in lots of instances, the administration is looking for to deport folks with out permitting them an opportunity to show they don’t seem to be who the administration says they’re.

Some of the targets have merely been college students affiliated with pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations, and others have been making an attempt to realize asylum standing within the United States via the courts.

The administration deported some 260 migrants to a infamous El Salvadoran jail facility referred to as CECOT, the place inmates are stored in brutal situations, solely pausing whereas federal lawsuits proceed.

Walz referenced the ICE operations throughout his graduation speech on the University of Minnesota’s regulation faculty on Saturday.

“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans wearing masks being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons,” he mentioned.

“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,” the governor went on. “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. We’re supposed to just take their word for it.”

Walz referred to as on the brand new regulation graduates to dwell as much as their pledge to uphold the regulation, saying they’re “graduating into a genuine emergency” beneath Trump.

“This is what the crumbling of rule of law looks like in real time. And it’s exactly what the founders of this nation feared: A tyrant, abusing power to persecute scapegoats and enemies,” Walz mentioned in a speech that sparked applause and cheers from the graduates.