The debate over immigration enforcement took a sharp turn this week as Holocaust comparisons drew a public rebuke from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum following comments by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The museum condemned political rhetoric likening illegal immigrants targeted by ICE to Anne Frank, calling the analogy offensive and historically false.
“Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable,” the museum said on X. “Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges.”
Walz sparked the criticism by comparing ICE agents to Nazis and illegal immigrants to Anne Frank amid escalating protests in Minnesota. “We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz declared. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
The governor has made similar claims before. During a May 2025 commencement ceremony, he labeled ICE the “modern-day Gestapo,” saying, “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks off the streets.” Earlier this month, Walz urged resistance to immigration enforcement, alleging agents were “grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into unmarked vans, kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process.”
Tensions intensified after an altercation Saturday in which protester Alex Pretti was shot by immigration enforcement officers. In response, President Donald Trump announced he would send border czar Tom Homan to oversee operations in the state. Some Border Patrol agents are expected to withdraw, according to Fox News.
Trump said he spoke directly with Walz about the unrest. “Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
