One of the most striking things about the current debate about the enforcement of immigration laws taking place in Minnesota and other Blue states is how closely it mirrors the battles between the state and federal government over slavery, and especially over segregation.
Down to the fact that, in many cases, the federal authorities were led by a Republican president forcing a Democratic governor to obey federal law. To be fair, in the case highlighted in the headline—George Wallace mobilizing the National Guard to prevent the integration of schools in his state —it was Democrat John F. Kennedy who federalized the Guard and used federal troops to escort schoolchildren to their new schools.
Many of the arguments made by state officials are mirrored in today’s proclamations by Governor Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, down to the claim that states have an inviolable right to regulate themselves even when in conflict with federal law. It really is remarkable, once you strip out the rhetoric, how the legal arguments are similar, and the insurrection-y behavior and rhetoric are almost alike.
ABOUT FACE:
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison has called for the use of the FACE Act to prosecute protests at mosques, according to @FreeBeacon review.
Now, Ellison insists the FACE Act shouldn’t apply to Don Lemon and comrades’ storming of a church. https://t.co/pv5YbyzZfe
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) January 20, 2026
Federal immigration laws are unenforceable. The FACE Act, once praised by Attorney General Keith Ellison, is now suddenly a violation of the First Amendment.
George Wallace could have said the same thing about integration as Mayor Jacob Frey says about ICE:
Frey: “Imagine if your city or town was invaded by thousands of federal agents that do not share the values that you hold dear.”
Funny how this logic never applies to the invasion of illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/J8Y36l6u9B
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 15, 2026
I’m pretty certain that integration violated the values of Wallace’s constituents.
he antics of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have been much in the news of late, but the corporate media has studiously ignored the legal and historical context of his refusal to comply with federal immigration law. Minnesota is just one of 16 Democrat-controlled states that have enacted measures that violate the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2), which provides that federal law takes precedence over conflicting laws passed by states. These Democrats are reenacting the nullification crisis that historians regard as a precursor to the Civil War.
These “sanctuary states” include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. How precisely are they violating the Supremacy Clause? Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution gives Congress plenary authority over immigration. Congress has passed a variety of laws designed to control which immigrants may legally enter and reside in the U.S. Yet when ICE officials try to enforce these laws, these states interfere, falsely claiming their own immigration statutes somehow take precedence.
Immigration policy is unambiguously a matter for the federal government, and it is ridiculous for anybody to suggest that Trump is arbitrarily pursuing a policy that was not decided in multiple national elections, following laws voted for by both Democrats and Republicans, or even that he is pursuing policies that have precedents in administrations led by both parties.
The argument boils down to: we dissent, so we disobey.
State officials aren’t even standing back and just watching the lawlessness. They are actively encouraging it and participating in it.
Don Lemon interviewed Jamael Lundy from the crowd at random and asked him about how the crowd was “grassroots.” But Lundy is the Intergovernmental Affairs Coordinator for Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, handling the prosecutor’s communications with federal officials. pic.twitter.com/iq5WX3xf93
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) January 20, 2026
State Senator Bobby Joe Champion encourages people to use weapons against ICE, and Governor Walz described a “war” between Minnesota and the federal government and invoked the Battle of Gettysburg. Schools are busing kids to protests and handing out whistles to interfere with ICE officers, and the entire Democratic establishment is encouraging felonies to interfere with ICE.
STORY: https://t.co/7xK3i5Za2h
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) January 19, 2026
The State Patrol has left federal employees, not even associated with ICE to be stalked by activists, and lawmakers are coordinating efforts to impede ICE operations by announcing to activists where the activity is. Local law enforcement has been instructed to stand down when federal agents are assaulted, and they are even allowing roving bands of activists to stop individuals in the street or even to witness beatings of counterprotesters without interfering.
Sound familiar? It’s the playbook of the KKK.
Some of these states, including Minnesota, have simply declared themselves sanctuary jurisdictions without bothering to pass a law. The Gopher State did so based on nothing more than an advisory opinion issued by its far left attorney general Keith Ellison: “Minnesota law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from holding someone based on an immigration detainer if the person would otherwise be released from custody.” Thus, local authorities release illegal aliens knowing that ICE officers are on their way to arrest them. As Michael R. Davis, President of the Article III Project, writes at Fox News:
Sanctuary states and cities cripple federal law enforcement. Leftist leaders refuse to assist the federal government in enforcing immigration law, including the outrageous refusal to honor federal detainers for illegal immigrants arrested for other crimes. When state jails release illegal immigrants, officials fail to notify ICE. Agents must track fugitives on the streets instead of making safe arrests inside jails, exposing themselves and the public to unnecessary danger. Sanctuary policies shield murderers, pedophiles, drug dealers, and armed robbers from deportation.
In many ways, this is worse than mere nullification. Earlier attempts by states to nullify federal laws have been based on the theory that Congress or federal courts had overstepped their constitutional authority. Indeed, that has been the basis for such challenges going back to the first nullification crisis prior to the Civil War. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina argued that the national government was merely a compact of the states. He believed the states were superior to the federal government and could unilaterally decide whether any particular federal law exceeded the authority that had been delegated to the national government.
Calhoun’s argument eventually grew into the secession movement and metastasized beyond South Carolina to the ten additional states that formed the confederacy in 1861. After that debacle got well over 600,000 people killed, nullification went out of fashion until the civil rights era, when Democrat governors used it as a pretext to fight school integration. Indeed, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called up the state’s National Guard to block nine black students from entering a high school in Little Rock. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has also mobilized his state’s National Guard to “protect Minnesotans” from the diabolical depredations of ICE:
On January 7, 2026, federal immigration agents shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in south Minneapolis. This shooting immediately follows the federal government’s surge of masked immigration officials in Minnesota. These agents have indiscriminately arrested people off the street, intimidated our friends and neighbors, and have now caused the loss of life. Minnesotans are feeling scared, angry, and disillusioned … The National Guard can support local law enforcement efforts to protect life and property, ensure public safety, and protect freedom of speech.
Democrat Gov. Orval Faubus called up the Arkansas National Guard to protect public schools from black students and Walz has called up Minnesota’s National Guard to protect violent anti-ICE activists from law enforcement officers. How is it that the Democrats are always on the wrong side of these and so many other issues? Think about it. All of the segregationists were Democrats. All of the anti-ICE activists are Democrats. What do these people have in common? Both reject the proposition that Congress or the federal courts have any legitimate authority to govern their actions. Both believe they have a right to nullify laws they dislike.
All of this chaos has been brought about solely because state officials are protecting criminals in state custody or releasing offenders onto the streets to avoid having them be arrested by ICE. Tom Homan has made clear that if state officials cooperated by turning over arrestees to the federal government—illegal aliens subject to deportation—the surge into Minneapolis will be over.
NEW: I was on a congressional town hall last night where Tom Homan made it very clear why ICE is in Minneapolis communities and neighborhoods in all large US cities.
“Let us in the jail. Stop being a sanctuary jurisdiction, sanctuary state, sanctuary city. Give us access to your…
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) January 16, 2026
NEW: I was on a congressional town hall last night where Tom Homan made it very clear why ICE is in Minneapolis communities and neighborhoods in all large US cities.“Let us in the jail. Stop being a sanctuary jurisdiction, sanctuary state, sanctuary city. Give us access to your jail so we can arrest these criminals in the safety and security of the jail. That way, we don’t have to go into the neighborhood and find them.”
They refuse.
It’s the Confederacy, or at least the Civil Rights insurrections all over again.
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