The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after he compared federal agents to President Donald Trump’s personal “Gestapo.”

Why It Matters

The Gestapo, Adolf Hitler’s secret police, was responsible for torturing and murdering millions during the Holocaust.

President Donald Trump has vowed to remove millions of undocumented immigrants from the country as he looks to fulfill his campaign vow of mass deportations.

The Republican leader has granted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expanded powers and emboldened the agency.

Walz, who was Kamala Harris‘ running mate, lost the presidential election to the Trump-JD Vance ticket. Immigration played a key role in the 2024 election.

What To Know

“It is absolutely sickening to compare ICE law enforcement agents to the Gestapo. Attacks and demonization of ICE and our partners is wrong,” DHS said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.

It comes after Walz delivered a keynote speech at the University of Minnesota Law School graduation ceremony on May 17.

“Donald Trump’s modern-day gestapo – gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans wearing masks. Being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons,” Walz told students.

He pointed to Trump’s immigration crackdown, which involves deporting alleged gang members to a notorious Salvadoran prison without due process.

DHS reported that ICE agents are now experiencing a 413% rise in assaults.

Walz urged graduates at the University of Minnesota’s law school commencement to challenge abuses of power, describing lawyers as “our first and last line of defense.”

Walz has been giving speeches nationwide as he considers a bid to run for the White House in 2028

What People Are Saying

Governor Walz said on May 17: “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. We’re supposed to just take their word for it. And when duly elected members of Congress tried to exercise their constitutional right of oversight at an ICE facility, they get shoved around and threatened with arrest. And when courts told them repeatedly to knock it off. They brazenly defy them.”

The White House Rapid Response team said in a post on X: “Disgraced loser @GovTimWalz thinks ICE agents are the “modern day Gestapo.”

What Happens Next

Immigration enforcement operations are expected to ramp up under the Trump administration.