Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is being ripped for his cold response to disturbing images of ICE’s brutal deportation operation in Minnesota.
On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, anchor Kristen Welker had Blanche look at a series of photos from scenes of Minnesotans being manhandled by federal agents.
“Look at these images. A protester on the ground being pepper-sprayed. A five-year-old being detained. A U.S. citizen being pulled out of his home half-naked, later released upon determination he was wrongly detained. Are federal agents acting humanely?” Welker asked.
A stone-faced Blanche declared, “Yes. Our agents are acting humanely. Their jobs are very, very difficult. It is a very difficult place to be, going out and trying to arrest these violent felons with no support from local law enforcement, with no support from the governor.”
Blanche, 51, tried to shift the blame to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, suggesting the unfolding crisis would stop if Minnesota’s prisons and jails gave federal agents access to people subject to deportation.
“They refuse to do that, and so the result of that is that ICE officers have to go out onto the streets and make arrests. And that is tough work. These are very difficult times,” said Blanche, who previously worked as Donald Trump’s defense attorney.
He then lashed out at Welker for finding “two or three things that are pointing to us being wrong or being too aggressive or not being appropriate” out of “thousands of arrests.”
“That’s not fair to the men and women that are doing this every day,” he said. The Trump administration has deployed roughly 3,000 federal immigration officers in the Twin Cities, according to NBC News.
Blanche’s comments sparked a furor on social media.
MS NOW legal analyst Kristy Greenberg wrote on X, “This is what ‘humane’ law enforcement looks like under Trump. You cannot shock the conscience of people who don’t have one.”
Another user commented, “Welker listed specific incidents. Blanche answered with a blanket reassurance. That gap is the whole issue.”
“Blanche must be impeached,” a third user wrote.
Others responded to Blanche’s claim that federal agents are acting “humanely” by sharing images of the killing of Alex Pretti by border patrol agents on Saturday.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
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