Is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz really seeking a second Civil War — no, not metaphorically speaking, but a real civil war? “I mean, is this a Fort Sumter?” Walz “mused” to the Atlantic’s Isaac Stanley-Becker.
Walz labeled the Department of Homeland Security’s large scale immigration law enforcement endeavor in Minnesota — “Operation Metro Surge” — as “a physical assault”, “an armed force that’s assaulting, that’s killing my constituents, my citizens”.
First, Minnesotans are citizens of the United States of America, not citizens of Wally World, I’m sorry, Walz World. Talk about “No Kings”!
Second, a federal law enforcement agency enforcing duly enacted federal immigration laws does not constitute an “assault” on the State of Minnesota –- even if Minnesota’s governor doesn’t like those laws and would rather they be ignored. Talk about “No Kings”!
Is the Federal Government Assaulting Minnesota? Or Is Minneapolis Assaulting Minnesota?
Of course, as I have recently written, “any potentially unlawful use of force — especially deadly force — by federal law enforcement officers must be fully and fairly investigated and potentially lead to sanctions up to and including criminal prosecution”. President Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan stated just today at his press conference on the situation in Minnesota that “The American people seek and deserve professional and trustworthy law enforcement and I and the president expect that any misconduct will not be tolerated and be swiftly addressed.”1
Was George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer (convicted of murder and manslaughter) an assault by Minneapolis on Minnesota? Was Daunte Wright’s killing by a Brooklyn Center police officer (convicted of manslaughter) an assault by Brooklyn Center against Minnesota?
On April 11, 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota stated that “[Brooklyn Center p]olice killed Daunte Wright, 20, during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center. … Yet another Black life was taken by those sworn to protect … .” The ACLU went on to proclaim that:
[We have] deep concerns that police here appear to have used dangling air fresheners as an excuse for making a pretextual stop, something police do all too often to target Black people.
[P]olice violence and killings of people of color must end, as must the over-policing and racial profiling that are endemic to our white supremacist system of policing.
Sound familiar? Gov. Walz has been making quite similar allegations against DHS. The ACLU called for “an immediate, transparent and independent investigation by an outside agency” and “the naming of all officers and agencies involved”. Sound familiar? Gov. Walz has been making quite similar demands of DHS.
Or Is Minnesota Assaulting the Federal Government?
Of course, Gov. Walz fails to mention the deliberate impeding of DHS law enforcement operations, and physical assault on DHS personnel, by certain of Walz’s “citizens”. Kyle Harvick, agent in charge of the Border Patrol Station in El Centro, Calif., submitted a declaration to the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, stating that:
At various locations throughout Minneapolis, [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] CBP officers have faced on a routine, if not daily, basis gatherings that spring up around agents conducting enforcement operations, targeted arrests of illegal immigrants, and operations involving the execution of criminal warrants. This type of ad hoc protest typically involves active public interference, where crowds quickly grow, often outnumbering and surrounding agents, in an effort to impede agents carrying out their lawful enforcement actions. These interferences can range from direct confrontation to people physically blocking, grabbing, or assaulting agents, blocking or pulling on subjects, blocking or sabotaging law enforcement vehicles, or preventing the egress of law enforcement vehicles from the location. This type of public interference escalates the risk of harm to CBP officers/agents and the public as it creates an even more chaotic and rapidly evolving threat environment in which officers/agents must monitor multiple potential risks, respond to those actively interfering or attacking, all while trying to complete their enforcement action safely and protect themselves and others. It is a very challenging and dangerous environment to operate in, and agents must rely on their years of training and experience to respond reasonably with only what force is necessary to get their job done.
But Agent Harvick is not an objective observer! Well, neither are the “protesters” who consider law enforcement personnel like him to be their nemesis.
Are federal appellate judges objective observers? On January 26, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a per curiam decision in Tincher v. Noem staying a district court’s injunction that had limited the actions that federal agents participating in “Operation Metro Surge” could take. The Eighth Circuit wrote that “We accessed and viewed the same videos the district court did. … What they show is observers and protestors engaging in a wide range of conduct, some of it peaceful but much of it not.”
Is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito an objective observer? He wrote in his dissent to the Supreme Court’s December 23, 2025, denial of a stay requested by the Trump administration in Trump v. Illinois that “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in and around Chicago have been the target of unprecedented sabotage and violence since June” that “has endangered the lives of federal personnel”. Justice Alito elaborated that:
Multiple rioters have been found with loaded guns, some of them semi-automatic. Rioters have hit, punched, and shoved officers; thrown bottles, rocks, and tear gas canisters at officers; attempted to grab officers’ firearms and munitions; pulled gas masks and tear gas canisters off the officers’ uniforms; targeted officers with bullhorns and whistles that can cause permanent hearing loss; aimed strobe lights and lasers at officers’ faces; and shot fireworks at officers. … As of early October, more than 30 federal officers had suffered injuries, and multiple officers had been hospitalized.
The Confederacy Rises Again
The State of Minnesota, City of Minneapolis, and City of Saint Paul have alleged to the federal District Court for the District of Minnesota that “Operation Metro Surge” “is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities”, “an unprecedented and unconstitutional invasion of Minnesota by thousands of heavily armed federal officers”.
A “federal invasion” of a state — where have we heard that rhetoric before in American history? The governments of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul are following in the grand tradition of the arch-enemies of Black Americans’ long and tortuous struggle for civil rights, most notably Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace and the implacable foes of post-Civil War Reconstruction in the defeated Confederacy.
On July 4, 1964, Gov. Wallace proclaimed in his speech “The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax” that “we have actually witnessed the invasion of the State of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama by the armed forces of the United States and maintained in the state against the will of the people and without consent of state legislatures”. As to Reconstruction, Coast Guard Commander Gary Felicetti and Lieutenant John Luce have written that “[N]either military rule by federal troops nor the subsequent mixed-race Republican state governments were popular with the white oligarchy that had dominated the South before the war. From their perspective, Congressional Reconstruction imposed corrupt and inept foreign governments propped up by an occupying army.”2
Congratulations, Gov. Walz, for assuming leadership of the new Confederacy.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey confided to the New York Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro that “What we have seen feels like an invasion.” But he did opine that “I don’t think [Governor Walz is] saying that the Civil War is going to happen.” That is reassuring, except that hizzoner has himself said that “We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another.” Literally fighting one another? That sure sounds like a civil war, of course one that would only occur if Governor Walz or Mayor Frey were to order the Minnesota National Guard or Minneapolis police to attack DHS law enforcement officers. God forbid that Gov. Walz's disdain for the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution turns into open and bloody insurrection.3
It was encouraging to hear President Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan state at his press conference that “I appreciate the discussions [we’ve] had with the governor, Mayor Frey and the [Minnesota] Attorney General [Keith Ellison]”4 and that “I want to thank the sheriffs, the governor, the [attorney general] … . We’ve never had this type of cooperation at this level.”5
However, Homan also found it necessary to say that “[i]t is shameful and incomprehensible to me that … this unlawful and threatening behavior is being tolerated by anyone”6 and that “I would implore the governor, the [attorney general], the mayor, and other political officials to urge in the most strong urgent way to ask for calm in their community and to end the resistance, the impedement, the interference, again protest [but] stop impeding, stop interfering, stop violating the law”.7
We shall see.
End Notes
1 Press conference video starting at 7:03.
2 “The Posse Comitatus Act: Setting the Record Straight on 124 Years of Mischief and Misunderstanding Before Any More Damage Is Done”, 175 Mil. L. Rev. 86, 105-06 (2003) (footnote omitted).
3 Article VI, clause 2, states that:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
4 Press conference video starting at 14:03.
5 Id. starting at 21:23.
6 Id. starting at 9:58.
7 Id. starting at 14:28.