State officials in Minnesota are stoking "an insurgency against the federal government" by resisting immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Thursday.
Appearing on "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Real America's Voice, Miller was asked whether the administration would pursue charges against Minnesota officials "who are abetting and encouraging" protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis.
Miller said that decision would rest with the Department of Justice.
"What I would say very clearly is that you only have to read their own words and hear their own words and judge their own conduct," Miller said, "to understand that this is clearly an insurgency against the federal government.
"They are describing the federal government as an occupying force. Just think about that for a second."
Miller said the federal government is constitutionally responsible for enforcing the law nationwide, including immigration law.
"We have one national currency, we have one national flag, we have one national Constitution, we have one national immigration law," he said.
"If you were to permit individual cities and states to ratify their own immigration laws for themselves, you wouldn't have a republic and you wouldn't have a country, and that's the proposition that [Minneapolis Mayor Jacob] Frey and [Minnesota Attorney General Keith] Ellison and [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz are trying to test.
"They are asserting that they have the unfettered right to harbor aliens who have no right to be in this country and to effectively incite violent insurrection from organized agitators against federal forces to prevent those federal forces from effectuating duly enacted immigration law."
Tensions have escalated between protesters and federal law enforcement in the past week following two violent incidents in Minneapolis. On Jan. 7, Renee Good, 37, was shot and killed by an ICE officer after she struck him with the vehicle she was driving.
On Wednesday night, a federal officer shot an illegal alien in the leg after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle while attempting to make an arrest.
Miller accused local and state Democrats of inciting violence and insurrection by "outside agitators" targeting ICE officers in Minnesota.
President Donald Trump warned Minnesota officials Thursday morning on Truth Social that unless they stop encouraging what he called "professional agitators and insurrectionists" from attacking federal law enforcement officers, he would deploy U.S. troops to quell the violence.
"Now you have Democrat politicians and their radical, violent agitator base using or attempting to use force to veto the results of a democratic process," Miller said.
"In other words, they use violence to override votes. That is what you're seeing and that is what is happening."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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