A new motive for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota and other blue states around the country just became clear, reported Mother Jones on Monday — and it’s leaving experts appalled.
Specifically, wrote Abby Vesoulis and Ari Berman, the Justice Department has made clear that the ramped-up immigration presence in Minneapolis that has terrorized locals and led to multiple fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, can end — when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hands over data that would let the administration interfere with elections.
The same day Alex Pretti was killed by ICE, they wrote, “US Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a pointed letter … stating that if he wanted to ‘bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,’ he should comply with some ‘common sense solutions.’ Those ‘solutions,’ according to Bondi, included Minnesota providing the Department of Justice with access to the state’s complete, unredacted voter roll, which includes sensitive personal information like voters’ Social Security numbers, drivers license data, and party affiliations. Bondi claimed that the DOJ needed the state’s full voter roll in order to ‘confirm Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.’”
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon likened it to a “ransom.”
Theoretically, the report noted, this massive dragnet of voter information by the federal government could be weaponized to challenge election results or push false narratives about voter fraud.
“That is simply a disgusting attempt to take attention away from Alex Pretti’s death,” said States United Democracy Center president Joanna Lydgate. “It’s also a shakedown. They’re trying now to use the power of the federal government to scare Minnesota officials into handing over voter rolls and backing down on their protective policies. Trump wants that state voter data so that he has the ability to interfere with the upcoming midterm elections.”
Already, the Trump administration has secured this data from a number of states; however, others have stood firm, and not just Democratic-controlled states. Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State and a Republican candidate for governor, has made clear state law does not allow him to hand over this data to the federal government. A federal judge recently blocked an effort by the Trump administration to compel the release of that data, albeit on a legal technicality.
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