Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) compared ICE authorities to the Nazi police force, the Gestapo, during a press conference.
“Today I had the opportunity to observe immigration court and observe plainclothes officers wearing masks, arresting and detaining immigrants who were here to appear in front of a judge as part of their court case,” he told reporters.
“This is Gestapo-like behavior,” Goldman said, “where plainclothes officers wearing masks are terrorizing immigrants who are doing the right thing by going to court, following up on their immigration proceedings, and trying to come into this country lawfully, which is through asylum.”
“I’m also, as a Jew, very familiar with the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, and other forms of secret law enforcement in Russia and elsewhere, that used fear and intimidation under the cover of night, under the cover of masks, in order to terrorize people that they did not like,” the congressman added.
Homeland Security condemned Goldman’s comments, calling them “sickening.”
“When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected gang members, murders, and rapists,” DHS said. “Attacks and demonization of our brave law enforcement is WRONG. ICE officers are now facing a 413% increase in assaults.”
Goldman responded to DHS, claiming, “None of these people showing up for court are criminals of any kind.”
“As a prosecutor, I worked with many ICE officers who arrested violent criminals,” he wrote on social media. “None of them wore masks.”
Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) has also compared immigration authorities to the Gestapo.
“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons,” Walz declared during a recent commencement address at the University of Minnesota’s law school. “No chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared. To be clear, there’s no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not because they refuse to give them a trial. We’re supposed to just take their word for it.”
